Anti-refillling device for the neck of a container, typically a bottle, and a composite stopper cap including said device
Inactive Publication Date: 2010-01-28
ALCAN PACKAGING CAPSULES
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AI Technical Summary
Benefits of technology
[0013]Advantageously, said transverse wall is made of plastic with a surface tension ranging between 25 and 50 mN / m. Preferably the smallest dimension of the external openings of the traversing channels is lower than 0.7 mm, while the smallest dimension of their internal openings is greater than 0.7 mm Preferably also, the smallest dimension of the external openings is lower than 0.6 mm, which makes fraudulent use even more difficult. Advantageously, the smallest dimension of the internal openings is greater than 0.8 mm, which facilitates the flow of liquid contained in the bottle.
[0017]Such a transverse wall makes it possible to prevent or at least to give warning of any fraudulent re-use of the container by filling with a liquid different from the original liquid: to introduce this liquid fraudulently, it is necessary to inject it under pressure while allowing the air contained in the bottle to escape. Provided said transverse wall is endowed with suitable mechanical properties, the forces to be brought into play will necessarily destroy said wall. The invention therefore becomes particularly advantageous if said transverse wall is made of a sufficiently rigid and fragile material for any fraudulent attempt to refill said container to be made visible by the destruction or the deterioration of all or part of said transverse wall.
[0019]To facilitate destruction of the device in the event of fraudulent handling, a single-piece molded device including a substantially cylindrical side wall to which said transverse wall is connected via a plurality of N easily breakable bridges is used, N being preferably lower than 12, of unit section less than 2 mm2, and preferably less than 1 mm2. Advantageously, said transverse wall includes in its central part a grid provided with said plurality of traversing channels and on the periphery a plurality of curvilinear slits, the smallest dimension of which is less than said critical dimension, typically, for a plastic transverse wall, less than 0.7 mm, and preferably less than 0.6 mm. The plurality of curvilinear slits is bounded by a crown attached to said side wall by easily breakable external bridges and to said grid by internal bridges, also easily breakable.
[0027]In this way, an autonomous assembly can be obtained which includes the stopper cap itself and the anti-refilling device and which can be fixed onto the neck in a single stage when capping the container, typically by axial depression or screwing. In the following, we will refer to such a unit as “composite stopper caps”. To facilitate handling of said composite stopper cap, said cylindrical wall is given a diameter substantially equal to that of the internal diameter of said metal skirt, and it is typically provided with a peripheral annular groove, so that said device can be inserted inside said shell and made interdependent with it, by forming a crimping ring. In order to also provide said composite stopper cap with a tamperproof function, the metal skirt is provided with an annular weakening line which separates the metal shell into a top section and a bottom section. After rupture of the weakening zone, the top section belongs to the removable stopper cap and the bottom section, crimped either to the neck or to the bottom part of the anti-refilling device, remains fixed to the bottle.
[0030]b) a lower part able to provide a tight and typically irreversible fit of said device to said neck and having a wall bounding a cavity, and
Problems solved by technology
In spite of the large number of already known devices, none of these devices has been able to impose itself in current practice as an efficient way of meeting with the objective of making containers equipped with these devices unfillable or of making any fraudulent re-use of a container by filling with a liquid different from the original liquid detectable, either because these devices were not very effective or not effective at all, or because they were too complicated to manufacture or to assemble with a container.
Method used
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examples of embodiments
A. Transverse Wall (FIGS. 1a, 1b and 2; FIGS. 5 to 9, FIG. 3, FIGS. 10 and 11)
[0051]FIG. 1a illustrates the characteristics common to all the anti-refilling devices according to the invention: said device has an axis (10) which coincides with the axis of the neck (40) of the container when it is fixed to the latter. It has an is axial duct (39) for dispensing said liquid through which a transverse wall (6) passes, fixed irreversibly to said anti-refilling device (3) and provided with a plurality of traversing channels (63). Each traversing channel (63) connects an external opening (60) directed towards the outside of the container to an internal opening (61) directed towards the inside of the container. The smallest dimension of said external opening (60) is selected for it to remain lower than a critical dimension determined according to the critical surface tension of the material used to make said transverse wall. On the other hand, the smallest dimension of said internal opening...
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An anti-refilling device, designed to be fixed irreversibly to the neck of a container containing a liquid and to be closed by a stopper cap. The device has an axis coinciding with the axis of the neck when it is fixed on the neck, and has an axial dispensing duct for the liquid through which a transverse wall extends, fixed irreversibly to the anti-refilling device and provided with a plurality of traversing channels, each of the channels connecting an external opening, directed towards the outside of the container, to an internal opening, directed towards the inside of the container. The smallest dimension of the external opening is less than a critical dimension determined according to the critical surface tension of the material making up the transverse wall, typically about 0.7 mm, and the smallest dimension of the internal opening is greater than the critical dimension.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates to the field of stopper caps, and more particularly that of anti-fraud stopper caps for the conditioning of liquid products of great value or great fame, typically in the field of wines, alcohols, liquors or spirits. In the following we will use the expression “anti-fraud” for the function of anti-refilling, preventing or indicating any fraudulent re-use of a container by filling with a liquid different from the original liquid. The term “tamper resistance” will be used for the “first opening indicator” function, in general performed by a strip or a skirt connected to the capsule by a line of breakable bridges, also known as a “weakening line”, which is detached when first opening.BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART[0002]A great number of patents describing capsules providing an anti-fraud or anti-refilling function have already been disclosed.[0003]The following may be quoted, as examples: French patents no 2 730 705, 2 406 578, 2 387 1 66, 2...
Claims
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Login to View More IPC IPC(8): B65D49/00B65D39/00
CPCB65D49/00B65D49/12B65D49/02
InventorGRANGER, JACQUESBOURREAU, JEAN-MARIE
OwnerALCAN PACKAGING CAPSULES