Crown Cork Sealing Inserts with SEBS for Thin Metal Sheets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing container closures, particularly crown corks, face challenges in achieving reliable sealing and barrier properties with reduced metal-sheet thickness, especially when dealing with uneven container mouths and sensitive contents, while avoiding halogenated materials that are harmful and difficult to dispose of.
Innovation Solution
The use of a sealing insert composed of a fully hydrogenated styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene copolymer (SEBS) or styrene-ethylene-propylene-styrene copolymer (SEPS) with a thickness of 0.10-0.19 mm, combined with a high yield strength tinplate, ensures effective sealing and barrier properties, even with hairline cracks, and can be manufactured through in-shell moulding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of stationary object
If the metal sheet thickness is reduced to lower material costs and weight, then the sealing performance and barrier properties deteriorate due to insufficient pressing force and structural weakness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameters of the sealing insert by using a specifically formulated polymer compound with optimized elasticity and hardness properties. This allows the sealing insert to generate sufficient sealing pressure even when the metal sheet thickness is reduced, thereby maintaining sealing performance while reducing material weight and cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a composite structure consisting of a metal crown cork body combined with a polymer-based sealing insert. This composite material approach allows the metal component to provide structural strength while the polymer component provides elastic sealing pressure, enabling the use of thinner metal sheets without compromising overall sealing reliability.
2Reliability
If halogenated materials like PVC are used in sealing inserts to achieve good sealing properties, then health safety and environmental compatibility worsen due to harmful emissions and disposal difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameters of the sealing insert material by replacing halogenated polymers with non-halogenated polymer compounds. The new material formulation maintains the necessary elasticity, hardness, and sealing properties while eliminating harmful halogenated emissions, thus improving health safety and environmental compatibility without sacrificing sealing performance.
3Force
If the sealing insert material is made too hard to ensure sealing pressure, then the ability to compensate for mouth unevenness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the physical parameters of the sealing insert material by carefully balancing hardness and elasticity. The polymer compound is formulated to have sufficient hardness to generate sealing pressure while maintaining adequate elasticity to deform and adapt to uneven container mouths, thereby achieving both sealing force and adaptability simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a composite polymer material that combines rigid and flexible components at the molecular level. This composite structure enables the sealing insert to exhibit both hard and soft characteristics - providing sealing pressure through the rigid phase while accommodating surface irregularities through the flexible phase.
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 provides improved sealing and barrier performance, allowing for thinner metal usage, reduced material costs, and compliance with environmental regulations, while maintaining sealing integrity and resistance to internal pressure.
Implementation Method 1
the sealing insert must consist on the one hand of a sufficiently hard, but on the other hand also elastic material... its hardness together with its elasticity makes the seal... compensates for the unevennesses of the container mouth
Implementation Method 2
introducing them into the container closure in a flowable form, then overmoulding there and consolidation... in the case of thermoplastic materials by introduction in the heated, flowable state, subsequent moulding and cooling
Data Source
AI summary
Crown cork for a vessel for holding beverages or foods that has a mouth to be closed with the crown cork, having a sealing insert arranged in the crown cork such that it sealingly closes the mouth when the crown cork is mounted on the vessel, where the crown cork including the sealing insert contains no halogen-containing materials, where the sheet metal used for the crown cork has a thickness of 0.10-0.19 mm, wherein the sealing insert contains at least twenty percent by weight, based on the total weight of the sealing insert, of at least one, preferably fully hydrogenated, styrene triblock copolymer, especially styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene copolymer (SEBS), SEEPS and/or SEPS, or a mixture of two or more of these copolymers.