Container closure with auxiliary compartment

Abstract

A screw-on type closure (12) for a container (10) comprised of an auxiliary compartment (14), accessible only when the closure is in the fully open configuration, and separated from the container by a sealing element (16), such that a second material may be housed in said compartment separate and secure from a first material housed within the container, in a configuration that does not affect the overall dimensional envelope of the closure and container assembly, nor the maximum volumetric capacity of the container itself.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] Not Applicable STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not Applicable BACKGROUND [0003] 1. Field of Invention [0004] This present invention relates to container closures, specifically to such bottle or jar-type closures having a compartment to house a second material that is accessible only when the closure is in its open configuration and does not reduce the maximum capacity of the primary container. [0005] 2. Description of Prior Art [0006] For many reasons, which have included the presentation of medicine, the bundling of a bonus or gift item with a primary item, or simply to fulfill some form of novelty function, there is a well-established economic desire to package an auxiliary material with a primary material. Further, one common manner to achieve this result, where there is a desire to maintain separation between the primary material and the auxiliary material, has been to form an auxiliary compart...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0026] Accordingly, several objects and advantages of my invention are:

[0027] to provide a container closure that provides an auxiliary compartment;

[0028] to provide a container closure with an auxiliary compartment that is only accessible when the closure is in the open configuration;

[0029] to provide a container closure with an auxiliary compartment that is capable of housing a second material,

Problems solved by technology

This configuration is unsatisfactory because it requires that the overall dimensional envelope of the primary container be increased in order to accommodate the required container neck in order to not otherwise sacrifice a portion of the maximum volumetric capacity of the primary container when the neck is created.

In a second common configuration, the auxiliary compartment will be configured within the closure to reside above the plane defined by the container opening, but employing an insecure closure type, such as a snap-on closure designed to flex and snap over a hp of some configuration that generally surrounds and protrudes perpendicularly outward or inward from the container wall at or near its opening point This configuration is unsatisfactory because it does not provide secure engagement of the closure to the container, such that the closure may be easily dislodged by incidental contact with an external object.

Snap-on style closures, while inexpensive to produce and convenient to operate, do not generally offer positive engagement with the primary container and are thus easily dislodged through inadvertent contact with an external object.

Clamp-on style closures are generally more expensive to fabricate, due to the plurality of parts required for their configuration, and generally require greater effort to engage and release, again due to the plurality of parts that require manipulation.

Further, containers using this type of closure typically cannot be easily resealed once the closure has been initially removed.

Further, stopper-style closures are generally the easiest to dislodge, regardless of orientation, which can ultimately result to a loss of the contained product in the primary container through spillage or evaporation.

Similarly, contamination of the primary product may also become an issue when the stopper is dislodged, even where no loss of product has occurred.

However, where an increased auxiliary compartment capacity is required, or where reduction in the maximum capacity of a primary container of fixed dimension is undesirable, then a closure containing an auxiliary compartment that protrudes from the closure into the primary container becomes highly undesirable.

Further, where a wall of such an auxiliary compartment comes into direct contact with the first material contained by the primary container, a potential exists for contamination of one or both of the first or second materials over time, due to degradation of the wall boundary, or migration of the first or second material through the wall boundary, since the wall material may not have been specifically designed to function as a seal for any duration.

Additionally, the auxiliary compartment must necessarily be designed such that its primary seal isolating the first material from the second material is located within closed primary container, thereby increasing the likelihood of leakage between the auxiliary compartment and the primary container, with handling, over time, particularly where either or both the first or second material is a liquid.

Since it is well documented in literature that the probability of leakage increases with the number of seals required to achieve a closure, this duplicity of seals is undesirable from both a functional and economic standpoint.

However, where security and absolute preservation of the second material contained in the auxiliary compartment are important, this closure configuration is undesirable due to the difficulty in forming a reliable seal about the external closure-to-primary container interface, and the ease with which a foreign object or matter can become inserted through, or migrate through, this interface region, thereby allowing foreign contact with the second material contained therein.

Further, in order to make such a configuration practical, it is generally necessary to reduce the threaded diameter of the primary container, rather than increasing the diameter of the closure significantly beyond that of the primary container diameter, thus resulting in formation of a neck in the primary container itself.

However, as with the aforementioned configuration wherein the auxiliary compartment is positioned within the boundaries of the primary container, this configuration also results in a reduction of the volumetric capacity of the primary container, when compared to a similar container without a neck and having the same overall dimensions.

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