Closure for plastic packaging containers

Abstract

The present invention relates to a closure for plastic packaging containers that exhibits innovative features that can simplify the manufacturing process and the filling with liquid and viscous products, but the main effect of which is to prevent the package walls from collapsing following a change in vapour pressure inside the container, regardless of the filling temperature.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention comprises a lid for plastic packs, especially thermo-formed cup-type packs that are commonly used for containing liquid products and ready-to-drink beverages, such as teas, fruit drinks etc. The lid addressed by this invention is endowed with innovative technical characteristics that prevent the collapse of such packs.[0002]Additionally, this invention addresses a lid for plastic packs that comprises a structure endowed with a configuration that can allow sterilization during hot filling operations (up to 92° C.) with high acidity pastes or liquids (pH<4.5), thus eliminating the use of preservatives for the storage, distribution and sale of such products at room temperature. Furthermore, through eliminating the effect of the collapse of the pack, this allows these packs to be stacked and displayed on sales gondolas in an appropriate and safe manner.GROUNDS FOR THE INVENTION[0003]Thermo-formed cup-type plastic packs are commonly used on t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a lid for thermo-formed plastic packs used for packaging food products such as cream cheeses and ready-to-drink beverages. The lid is designed to solve problems with current lids by ensuring the integrity of the packs' structure, preventing the walls from collapsing after they have been filled and sealed. It also maintains the packs' appearance, allowing for better displays and improved logistical concerns. The lid can be used on both cup-type and pot-type packs, and it is cost-effective and safe. The technical effects of this invention revolves around the unique structure of the lid which ensures the structural integrity of the packs' body, regardless of the beverage's condition during and after filling, closing, and cooling.

Problems solved by technology

As a result, it is noted that during the fabrication and filing process of these beverages, this fragility adversely affects the structure of the final product, and may result in the collapse of the pack walls after the lid has been placed in position and the beverage has cooled.

Thus, as is known to technical experts in the matter, for this type of pack and packaging for liquid products, there is no way of offsetting this vacuum without weakening the pack structure.

Consequently, due to a natural effect, attempts are made to offset this in the weakest parts, which may result in the partial collapse of the pack walls, as they are less rigid, being thinner and more flexible, as mentioned above.

This collapse effect increases as the temperature of the filled beverage rises: the higher the filling temperature, the more severely the pack walls collapse as the beverage cools, meaning that sterilization through hot bottling (up to 92° C.) is impractical for this type of pack.

In today's world, when health and good nutrition are increasingly more important in the lives of human beings, the use of preservatives is viewed and considered as being harmful to health.

Additionally, it is known that the collapse of these packs causes a series of problems for the logistics, packaging and sale of the end product.

This is because a ‘crushed’ pack is normally viewed as being a product with problems, or old, meaning that consumers normally refuse to purchase a product when it is crushed or collapsed.

This is also a sales gondola display problem as, depending on the extent to which the pack has collapsed, it may be distorted; as a result, it will be difficult to stack or display one pack over another on the sales gondolas.

This problem is relatively critical for supermarkets, hypermarkets and markets in general, as gondola stacking must be optimized to the greatest possible extent, using the least possible space to display the largest variety of products.

Consequently, if state-of-the-art packs are subject to this collapse effect, becoming irregular, they cannot be stacked, and consequently they must be displayed at a single level.

It is thus important to stress that injected plastic packs would make low value added ready-to-drink beverages too expensive, while at the same time the thermo-shaped plastic packs known as the state of the art do not allow hot processing while filling packs with products such as cream cheese.

In other words, in order to avoid the collapse of packs containing low value added ready-to-drink beverages, it would be necessary to use heavier injected plastic packs which would not be economically feasible, while hot-processing products in thermo-formed plastic packs is also not feasible in practice, as the packs would collapse.

Consequently, there are clear constraints currently in place on the filling and sale of specific consumer goods.

However, this configuration did not prove effective, as an expensive cup fabrication process was required, using specific high-precision equipment for shaping the pack bottom.

In practice, it was also noted that the adverse effects remained for the flexibility and rigidity of the walls of the cup structure, which in fact continued to collapse even before the above-mentioned valve was tripped into action.

The possible alternative of increasing the wall thickness undermined the economic feasibility of the pack, and consequently the end product, for low value added ready-to-drink beverages.

Consequently, it is quite clear that, although functional so far, these packs, especially thermo-formed cups for low value added ready-to-drink beverages, offer some inconvenient aspects and limitations, related mainly to the quality of the pack structure, intervening negatively in the configuration and appearance of the end product.

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