Closure or stopper forms a surface tension seal

Abstract

A closure or stopper for a container to contain liquid, powder or paste, the container having means to define a first extremely flat annular surface, the closure comprising a sealing member defining a second extremely flat surface, an annular groove that locates an O-ring, and means such as thread to urge the extremely flat surfaces into parallel abutting contact, the extremely flat surfaces adapted to form a surface tension seal when they are urged into parallel abutting contact and means to prevent lateral or shear relative movement. Another form of the closure is the sealing member being a disc that seats on the flat annular sealing surface defined by the top of the neck of a bottle to form a seal, and a metal cap to place the seal under axial load and protects the seal from vibration.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention relates to closures or stoppers for containers containing liquid, powder or pastes, particularly wine bottles. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] A major technical issue in the wine industry is the unpredictable incidences of problems that occur once the wine has been bottled due to the properties of the closures used. [0003] Traditional cork closures have problems with taint, caused in a major part by Trichloroanisoles (TCA), known more commonly as corked taint or causing “corked wine”. It has been estimated that the wine in up to 10% of all bottles of wine produced worldwide may be affected in this manner. A more recently recognised problem with using cork as a closure is the physical nature of cork having variability to the permeation of oxygen which can lead to inconsistent and uneven development of the bottled wine. Leakage has always been an issue associated with cork caused by a fault line or lines or porosity in the cork. [0004] T...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a closure for a container arranged to contain liquid, powder or paste, the container comprising means to define a first extremely flat surface, a sealing member defining a second extremely flat surface, the extremely flat surfaces adapted to form a surface tension seal when they are pressed into parallel abutting contact and means to prevent lateral relative movement whereby the sealing member prevents escape of liquid, powder or paste from the container.

[0007] In accordance with the second aspect of the present invention there is provided a closure for a wine bottle having a neck and an aperture, the closure comprising a first extremely flat surface around the neck of the bottle, a sealing member having a second extremely flat surface, the sealing member being adapted to fit onto the first surface and across the aperture with the second surface in parallel abutting contact to form a surface tension seal, and means to prevent relative lateral movement of the surfaces.

Problems solved by technology

A major technical issue in the wine industry is the unpredictable incidences of problems that occur once the wine has been bottled due to the properties of the closures used.

Traditional cork closures have problems with taint, caused in a major part by Trichloroanisoles (TCA), known more commonly as corked taint or causing “corked wine”.

A more recently recognised problem with using cork as a closure is the physical nature of cork having variability to the permeation of oxygen which can lead to inconsistent and uneven development of the bottled wine.

Leakage has always been an issue associated with cork caused by a fault line or lines or porosity in the cork.

There have been issues of taint and other performance issues from synthetic materials and the screw type closures and there is limited experience and testing of the performance of these materials.

There is also considerable market resistance to the use of synthetic materials.

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