CN1839070A - Improved, gradually shrinkable, disposable container - Google Patents

Abstract

Disposable container which is collapsible gradually, at least a part of the side walls (2) of the container having a bellows-like structure comprising a plurality of adjacent folds (A-G), each fold being formed by two opposite surfaces of different width, characterised in that the surfaces of greater width (A-D) are stiffer than the surfaces of smaller width (D-E). Preferably, the greater hardness of the greater surface of the fold is a shape hardness, the greater surface being in the shape of a reinforcing step rib (a-C) with rounded edges projecting from the outside of the container.

Description

Improved, gradually shrinkable, disposable container

technical field

The present invention relates to an improved, progressively collapsible disposable container. In particular, the present invention relates to a container of this type which is improved in the manner of contraction, with the aim of making the contraction easier and smoother, while at the same time providing an increased stability of the container itself in a partially or fully contracted shape .

Background technique

Variable-volume containers, especially variable-volume bottles, are known in the prior art, formed from cylindrical containers with a circular or polygonal cross-section, the walls of which consist of a corrugated structure which, when filled, , this structure is in the unfolded shape. When the content in the bottle is used up, the internal volume of the container can be changed by gradually folding the corrugated structure (hereinafter referred to as "bottle shrinkage") to accommodate the reduction of the content and make the air volume at the top of the container Keep it to a minimum.

The collapsible container described above also has the advantage of taking up storage space in proportion to its contents, since the external volume of the container is of course correspondingly reduced during the shrinking process. Eventually, when the contents are completely used up and the folding of the corrugated structure is complete, the container reaches its minimum volume, after which the container can be thrown directly into the recycling waste. That is, there is no need for any further compression operations to reduce their volume as is normally required for conventional empty containers.

Containers of this type are particularly suitable for containing perishable items such as food and especially beverages. Keeping the volume of air above these products at a low volume actually reduces the rate at which the products oxidize and thus keeps their organoleptic properties longer.

In European patent EP1150889 of the same applicant as the present application a container is disclosed which, unlike previously known containers, has a very stable collapsed shape. The container itself does not undergo any process of returning to its original shape, nor does it return to its original shape even when it is subjected to an external force during operations such as pouring the liquid in the bottle or holding a bottle filled with aerated liquid closed.

Contents of the invention

Since the filing of the above-mentioned patent application, the inventors of the present application have continued research and experiments to further improve their invented container, the main purpose of which improvement is to make the shrinking process of the container more smooth and efficient, and to make the shape after shrinking more compact. Stablize.

The present invention is formed on the basis of such studies and experiments, and relates to a disposable, gradually shrinkable container. In this type of container, at least part of the container sidewall has a corrugated structure comprising a plurality of adjacent flaps, each flap being formed by two opposing surfaces of different widths, with the larger width surface being more Smaller width surfaces have greater hardness.

According to an important feature of the invention, the increase in stiffness is achieved by modifying the shape of the larger surface, which is formed with the purpose of constituting the outwardly protruding ribs of the container.

In any event, other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of the present invention, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a front view of a bottle of the present invention having a downwardly corrugated structure in its expanded configuration.

Figure 2 is a front view of the bottle of Figure 1 in its collapsed configuration.

Figure 3 is a front view of the bottle of the present invention having an upwardly corrugated structure in its expanded configuration.

Figure 4 is a front view of the bottle of Figure 3 in its collapsed configuration.

Figure 5 is a highly enlarged cross-sectional view of the side wall of the bottle of Figures 1 and 2 (or inverted as Figures 3 and 4) in its expanded configuration.

Figure 6 is a highly enlarged cross-sectional view of the sidewall of the bottle of Figures 1 and 2 (or inverted as Figures 3 and 4) in its collapsed configuration.

Detailed ways

According to the main feature of the invention, in order to obtain a smooth shrinkage of the bottle, the hardness of the larger surface of each fold of the corrugated side wall of the container is greater than that of the smaller surface, wherein the larger surface is opposite to the smaller surface, and the smaller surface is in the shrinking process The center folds up into the larger surface. This solution is in contrast to the prior art, where the two faces of each hem that actually form the corrugation are usually continuous planar or moderately arched, so that the larger face is stiffer than the smaller face The hardness of the two surfaces is obviously inversely proportional to their width.

Due to this characteristic of the larger surface of all corrugations, that is, the larger surface is harder than the corresponding smaller surface, when the consumer applies squeezing force to the neck or lid of the bottle, the The larger surface of the corrugation retains its original shape substantially unchanged during contraction and can therefore move in a smooth manner to the smaller surface interposed between the larger areas. Thus, said smaller surface with less hardness is subjected to external forces acting in opposite directions corresponding to its inner and outer edges, respectively, and these outer and inner edges are evenly distributed over the entire circumference of the bottle, so that said The shrinking process of the surfaces takes place in a very smooth and synchronous manner, avoiding deviations in positioning or ovalization of the bottle, when the two surfaces of the corrugations are of opposite hardness scales with respect to the hardness scale defined by the invention , the above-mentioned phenomenon will easily occur, and this phenomenon has actually occurred in the prior art.

Figures 1 to 4 show bottles made according to the teachings of the present invention. The bottle 1 comprises a corrugated side wall 2, a top part 3 with a neck 4, and a bottom part 5 onto which the cap is screwed. The corrugated side wall 2 is at least partly composed of a certain number of corrugated elements 6, which are simply referred to as "folds" in this specification. The large surface 7 is formed by a smaller surface 8 .

In the bottle shown in FIG. 1 , the larger surface 7 of the crease 6 is above and the smaller surface 8 is below, so that the shrinking process of the bottle (in FIG. 2 ) takes place "downwards". The side wall of the bottle 1 designed in this way is called "downward corrugation". In contrast, the corrugation of the bottle shown in Figure 3 is upwards, so that the crimping shrinkage process (in Figure 4) occurs "upwards". A bottle sidewall designed in this way is called "upwardly corrugated". The two designs are of course completely equivalent, so no distinction will be made between the two cases in the following detailed description.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the maximum hardness magnitude of the larger surface of each corrugation fold is obtained by form stiffness. This means that the two surfaces 7 and 8 forming each corrugation are made of the same material and have substantially the same thickness, whereas surface 7 acquires a greater stiffness due to the fact that this surface is formed with a reinforcing rib protruding from the outside of the bottle.

A preferred embodiment of the larger surface 7 of each corrugation is shown in Figure 5, which is highly exaggerated in size and shows in section a part of the side wall 2 of the collapsible bottle 1 of the present invention. In this figure, the structure of each indentation 6 is seen more clearly, each indentation being composed of a larger surface 7 and a smaller surface 8 . This larger surface 7 is not flat or arcuate as in the prior art (as shown by partially discontinuous line AD), but includes a large stepped rib 9 protruding outward from the bottle surface, so that in cross-section, the surface 7 is represented by a rounded dotted line ABCD comprising a stepped portion ABC followed by a straight line portion CD aligned with a directrix AD.

The maximum height h of the stepped rib 9 corresponding to the directrix AD, measured at the elbow B of said rib, preferably occupies the total size of the surface 7, ie 20-50% of the length of the line segment AD. The length of the extension of said stepped area 9 measured along the directrix AD occupies between 60% and 80% of the length of BE.

The smaller surface 8 of the fold 6 is designed flat or, better, arched as required by EP1150889, as can be seen in FIG. 5 (part DE), which has a convexity towards the larger surface 7. Curvature, while the smaller surface 8 shrinks towards the larger surface 7. Surfaces 7 and 8 are joined to each other by a rounded edge at point D, which becomes the pivot point for corrugated element 6 when the bottle is retracted.

According to an additional feature of the invention, the folds 6 have at their base a ring-shaped region 10 of scalloped contour, which separates the folds 6 from one another. Also due to the fact that the bottle has a greater transverse stiffness function, this annular zone 10 has such a shape as to assist the shrinking of the bottle 1 and to make the bottle more stable in its collapsed shape.

和 的弯曲方向与它们在瓶收缩形状时的弯曲方向相反。A ring-shaped stiffening zone of the known type may in fact simply consist of a vertical, near-vertical or arcuate wall directly adjoining two adjacent folded surfaces. In contrast, according to the present invention, as can be clearly seen in sectional view 5, each annular region includes a vertical, nearly vertical or arcuate wall FG which is connected to the adjacent flange by horizontal or nearly horizontal walls EF and AG. The surfaces of ED and AB are connected. Also, the orientation and/or curvature of these connecting walls are formed according to the corresponding surfaces of their adjacent creases, corner regions

and The bending direction of the bottle is opposite to that of their bending in the bottle's contracted shape.

突变而，由图5中示出的初始平衡位置移动至图6示出的非常稳定的结束平衡位置。除了有助于收缩动作之外，从这两个平衡形状中的一个稳定形状到另一个稳定形状的突变还对瓶子收缩形状的高度稳定性作出了积极的贡献。When contracting, due to the instability of the intermediate state, the corner region and

Suddenly, the initial equilibrium position shown in FIG. 5 moves to the very stable end equilibrium position shown in FIG. 6 . In addition to contributing to the contraction action, the sudden change from one stable shape to the other of these two equilibrium shapes also contributes positively to the high stability of the bottle's contracted shape.

和

的宽度在压折被收缩时必须相应地缩小。During the change from the initial shape to the contracted shape, the sides 7 and 8 of the crease 6, or more precisely, the rounded corner areas and undergoes a transient deformation whose respective curvatures are raised to a greater degree relative to the initial and end states of the region. This is because the radial width of the flange 6, that is, the geometric distance between the peak and the bottom, remains substantially unchanged during the shrinkage of the bottle, so the above-mentioned rounded corner area

and

The width of must shrink accordingly when the crease is shrunk.

The deformation of the sides 7 and 8 determines the asymmetry of the circumference, that is, such deformations differ depending on where they occur on the circumference, and this may in turn determine the uneven shrinkage of the folds 6, the occurrence of ovalization or vertical deflection. According to another characteristic of the invention, this problem can be avoided, corresponding to the connection area between the two sides of the fold 6, in particular corresponding to the peak D of said fold, several Tiny openings. For example, micro openings in the shape of 8 hemispherical micro grooves can be arranged symmetrically every 45° along the circumference of the bottle. The function of these micro-openings is to create asynchronous points in the distribution of pressure during the contraction, so that the lateral deformation of the folds takes on a wave-like form and is arranged symmetrically according to the above-mentioned micro-openings. In this way, the shrinking process of the bottle will be smoother and ovalization or vertical deflection can be avoided.

The present invention has been described with reference to its preferred embodiments, but it is obvious that the protection scope of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments, but includes all possible changes that can be implemented by those skilled in the art, provided that these changes are included within the detailed definitions of the appended claims.

Claims (13)

1, the disposable container that can shrink gradually, in such container, described container have ripple struction to the small part side, this structure comprises a plurality of adjacent backfins, each backfin is formed by the surface of two relative different in width, wherein, the hardness on the surface of the less width of surface ratio of big width is big.

2, container according to claim 1 is characterized in that, the big hardness on bigger backfin surface is shape hardness.

3, container according to claim 2 is characterized in that, the shape on the surface of the big width of described backfin constitutes a strengthening rib that protrudes in external container.

4, container according to claim 3 is characterized in that, described rib be shaped as the rounding step.

5, container according to claim 4 is characterized in that, the maximum height of described step rib account for the backfin that forms this rib big surface overall width 20% to 50% between.

6, container according to claim 4 is characterized in that, the length that described step rib extends preferably account for the backfin that forms this rib big surface overall width 60% to 80% between.

According to the arbitrary described container of above claim, it is characterized in that 7, the surface of described less width is an arch, and towards described big rat.

8, according to the arbitrary described container of above claim, it is characterized in that described adjacent folds is separated from each other, have the annular section of a shell-like side profile in its relative bottom.

9, container according to claim 8 is characterized in that, that described annular section comprises is one vertical, near the wall of vertical or arch, and this wall is connected with the surface of adjacent folds by level or near the connecting wall of level.

10, container according to claim 9 is characterized in that, the direction of these connecting walls and/or curvature form the respective surfaces of adjacent folds, and the bending direction of corner area is opposite with their bending directions when the bottle collapsed shape.

11, according to the arbitrary described container of above claim, it is characterized in that, on one or two join domain between the side of described adjacent folds, form several crack mouthful with the circumference symmetrical manner.

12, container according to claim 11 is characterized in that, described crack mouthful is hemisphere nick shape.

According to the arbitrary described container of above claim, it is characterized in that 13, described container is a bottle that is suitable for adorning liquid.

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