Beverage Container End Closure With Rotatable Valve
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing plastic end closures for beverage containers fail to maintain tightness under high internal pressures and do not provide adequate protection against contamination and hygiene issues after initial opening.
Innovation Solution
A dome-shaped end closure with a rotatable valve and a hygienic cover, featuring a sealing groove for a plastic foil and a knob with a cylindrical element, allowing for easy opening and re-closure while ensuring tightness and protecting the mouth contact area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional plastic end closure is used, then the container can be sealed, but it fails to maintain tightness under high internal pressures generated by carbonated beverages
Solution Approach 1:
The closure is divided into a body and a separately mountable valve assembly. The valve with its latches and sealing surfaces can be independently optimized for pressure resistance, while the body provides structural support. This segmentation allows each component to specialize in handling specific aspects of pressure containment.
Solution Approach 2:
A frangible foil seal is pre-installed in the closure body to provide initial sealing before the valve is activated. This preliminary sealing mechanism ensures tightness is established before the beverage is accessed, and the foil can be designed to fail safely under controlled conditions while maintaining pressure integrity.
2Ease of operation
If the closure is designed for easy opening, then consumer convenience is improved, but protection against contamination and hygiene issues after opening is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The closure transitions from a static sealed state to a dynamic re-closable state. The rotatable valve with latches allows the opening to be dynamically closed after initial access, enabling the closure to adapt between open and closed configurations. This dynamic capability maintains hygiene protection while allowing easy opening when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The frangible foil is designed to be discarded (torn away) during initial opening, while the main valve body is recovered and reused for multiple closing cycles. This selective discarding approach eliminates the need to discard the entire closure while maintaining protection capabilities through the reusable valve mechanism.
3Reliability
If a rotatable valve mechanism is added for re-closure capability, then the closure can protect the beverage after opening, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The valve body, latches, sealing surfaces, and rotatable operation mechanism are merged into a single integrated assembly that mounts onto the closure body. This consolidation reduces the number of separate components and simplifies manufacturing while maintaining the re-closure functionality. The unified design allows the valve to perform multiple functions (sealing, locking, rotating) through integrated structural elements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively maintains container tightness under high pressures, facilitates easy opening, and provides protection against contamination and hygiene issues after initial opening.
Implementation Method 1
The valve is sealed and immobilised on the end closure's inside surface using plastic foil that has a hole with an area that is less than the area of the base of the cylindrical element
Implementation Method 2
a rotatable valve and a hygienic cover, featuring a sealing groove for a plastic foil and a knob with a cylindrical element, allowing for easy opening and re-closure
Implementation Method 3
the additional hygienic cover protects the mouth contact area
Implementation Method 4
The end closure consists of a body that is tightly attached to the container and ensures a tight closure before the container is opened for the first time, and may be used to cover the opening
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~7
AI summary
This invention is concerned with a plastic end closure of a container that is primarily intended for beverages. It consists of a body that is tightly attached to the container and an opening device that can additionally be used to cover the in-and-out hole. According to the invention, the end closure is characterised by that it has an in-and-out hole (3) in the body (1), which is tightly closed until opened for the first time using the valve (5) that has a hole around which, substantially perpendicularly to the hole surface, there are at least two latches (7) that are rotatably mounted in the mounting hole (4) from the inside of the end closure and interact with a knob (6) that has an arm (13) terminated with a cylindrical element (9) that has at least one carrier (10) on its side surface and is rotatably mounted in the mounting hole (4) from the outside of the end closure. The valve (5) and the knob (6) are sealed and immobilised with the help of the plastic foil (11). After opening, the in-and-out hole can be covered again using the valve (5), and the mouth contact area with the hygienic cover (19).