Tethered Plastic Screw Stopper with Anchored Bridges
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tethered screw stoppers face environmental issues due to separable roofs that are not always recycled, often ending up as litter or in landfills, as consumers fail to reattach them to the bottle neck after use.
Innovation Solution
A tethered plastic screw stopper design featuring an annular ring linked to both the closure shell and tamper band through bottom and top weakness lines, where the remaining bridges are thicker and more resistant to breakage, ensuring the roof stays attached to the bottle neck after opening, allowing for easier fabrication and reduced waste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the roof is made separable from the tamper shell through weakness lines, then the stopper can be opened easily, but the roof may be lost as litter or discarded in landfills
Solution Approach 1:
The stopper is divided into separable components (roof, bridges, tamper shell) connected by weakness lines, allowing the roof to be detached during opening while remaining tethered to the bottle neck through the tamper shell, thus preventing complete loss
Solution Approach 2:
The tamper shell acts as an intermediary element that remains on the bottle neck after opening, serving as a retaining structure that prevents the roof from being completely discarded, while still allowing the roof to be separated for access to the bottle
2Ease of operation
If the bridges are made thin to allow easy tearing during opening, then the stopper opens smoothly, but the bridges may break unintentionally during normal use
Solution Approach 1:
The bridges exhibit local quality variation with different thicknesses: thinner sections at the weakness lines for easy tearing during opening, and thicker sections in other areas to provide structural strength during normal use and prevent unintentional breakage
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the stopper is designed as tethered with annular ring and remaining bridges, then the roof stays attached to prevent litter, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The annular ring and remaining bridges are integrated into a single molded piece with the tamper shell, combining multiple functions (retention, structural support, tethering) into one component, which reduces the number of separate parts and simplifies assembly while maintaining the tethered functionality
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to tethered plastic stopper having a closure shell, a tamper band, and an annular ring. The annular ring is formed between a bottom weakness line separably linked through bottom bridges to the top edge of the tamper band and to the bottom edge of the annular ring and a top weakness line separably linked through top bridges to the top edge of the annular ring and to the bottom edge of the closure shell. At least one of the bottom bridges is configured to prevent disconnection of the annular ring from the tamper band and at least one of the top bridges is configured to prevent disconnection of the annular ring from the closure shell. The remaining bottom bridge and the remaining top bridge having a section exceeding at least 30% relative to the section of the bottom bridges and top bridges, respectively.