GB2035279A - A child-safe closure of a container - Google Patents

Abstract

Child-safe cap for a container 1 having a neck 3 with a peripheral shoulder defined by a screw cap 5 or the neck itself, is adapted to be rotatable on the neck of the container and has a resilient locking claw 9 which is carried on a resilient tongue 10 and in its operative position engages beneath the shoulder to lock the safety cap in place. The claw 9 has an actuator 12' adjacent the bottom of an enclosure 11 which forms part of the cap, said enclosure being of a shape and length such that the actuator 12' can only be reached by the finger of an adult person to disengage the claw from the shoulder to allow removal of the safety cap. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A child-safe closure of a container The invention relates to a child-safe closure of a container comprising a cap to be positioned onto the neck portion of a container which cap cooperates with a locking means locking behind an uninterrupted rigid edge, said locking means being of such a construction that it may only be unlocked by the hand of an adult.

An example of such a child-safe closure may be found in the published Dutch Patent Application 7514516. In this known safety closure there has been provided a ring resting against the under side of the bead of the neck of the container and having a large number of upwardly directed separate claw-like locking means in a crown-like arrangement, catching behind an inwardly projecting edge of the sleeve of a screw cap. For unlocking in order to make the cap detachable by turning all locking means have to be pushed inwardly simultaneously this only being possible when all locking means are pushed in by means of the thumb and the forefinger of a sufficiently large hand at the same time. Such a closure is complicated and may therefore only be produced at a high price.Upon removal of the screw cap the locking arrangement remains on the container so that upon pouring the contents out of the container part thereof may be spilled easily between the locking means thus fouling the same. Moreover, this known safety closure may only be used in combination with a screw cap.

An object of the present invention is to provide a child-safe closure that not only may be combined with a screw cap but also with other types of closures and that may also be used either as the sole closure or as a closure of the container after removal of the usual closure.

This object is attained in accordance with the present invention in that the cap has an inner face fitting at close clearance over the uninterrupted edge of the neck or of a closing cover placed on said neck in such a manner that in operative position said cap may be rotated freely, said cap possessing a claw locking behind this edge which locking claw is kept in the operative position under the influence of elastic means and is located at the end of an enclosure only open at the other end thereof, said locking claw having an actuator within said enclosure at close distance from the closed end of said enclosure, said enclosure being of such a length that the actuator may solely be reached by the finger of a hand of an at least six year old person.The safety closure thus consists of a cap fitting in a freely rotatable manner on the usual closing cover, for instance a screw cap or a bayonet cap, although said cap may also fit in a freely rotatable manner on a neck of a bottle or container from which the usual cap has already been removed, in which case the cap is rotatable on this neck. The locking claw then locks behind the bead of the bottle thus preventing the removal of the cap in an axial direction. When the safety cap is positioned on a usual closing cover such as a screw cap the locking claw will lock behind the edge of the screw cap.

In both the above cases canting motions that might promote the release are prevented by guiding the cap yet at a higher level on the neck or on the screw cap, respectively, and the like. The freely rotatable condition is important for it is impossible to open the screw cap by rotating the safety cap when placed on said screw cap.

Any type of screw cap also a screw cap provided with a locking edge frangible connecting bridges, in paticular a screw cap of the type disclosed in the copending Dutch Patent Application 78.10527 filed on even date may be utilized as the screw cap.

Where the actuator of the locking claw is located at close distance from the closed end of the enclosure and the enclosure is of the described length any actuation thereof by the hand of a child is quite impossible.

When choosing the length of the enclosure one should of course account for differences in body size between people and races, respectively.

It is preferred that the locking claw is located at the end of an elastic tongue the base of which is integrated with the wall of the enclosure while said tongue extends in the direction of the inner wall of the enclosure. As regards the construction this is an attractive and simple solution having the advantage that too short a finger reaching in the enclosure may only exert forces on said tongue in the locking direction and not in the unlocking direction.

It is furthermore preferred that the actuator of the locking means has an annular shape and is spatially distanced from the end wall of the enclosure, while this end wall is provided with a threshold or cam underneath that part of the ring not facing the locking means, said threshold or cam possessing a side wall facing the locking means aligned with the inner surface of the ring. In such an embodiment it is not possible or anyway not easily feasible to move the actuator by means of an object such as a pencil put into the enclosure. Such an object will then be passed through the ring until the end wall is hit.

Movement in the direction for unlocking will then be prevented by the threshold orcam.

The invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the annexed drawing showing the safety cap in cross section.

In the drawing there has been shown a bottle 1 having a neck 3 provided with a screw thread 2 and also with a so-called bottle bead 4. On this bottle neck there has been positioned a screw cap 5 having a thickened lower edge 6.

The safety cap according to the invention has been indicated by the reference numeral 7 and is rotatably supported at close clearance on the thickened edge 6 and furthermore centered by means of the inwardly projecting edge 8 the latter edge being caught within the upper edge of the screw cap.

The locking claw has been indicated by the reference numeral 9 and is located at the end of an elastictongue 10 forming part of the inner wall of an enclosure 11 while the base of said tongue is integrated with this enclosure wall at 12.

In the shown embodiment the claw 9 locks behind the edge 6 of the screw cap.

It will, however, be evident that there is also conceivable an embodiment in which the claw 9 locks behind the bottle bead 4, such also being conceivable in case of a cap the dimensions of which have been adapted to the bottle neck so that the cap may be utilized on a neck on which the screw cap or another closure has been positioned or a closure is employed which does not possess an edge suitable for cooperation with the locking claw.

The locking claw has been provided with an annular actuator 12' at some distance above the closed end wall 13 of the enclosure 11.

The end wall possesses a threshold 14 the inner face of which is aligned with the inner edge of the ring 12. When a pointed object such as a pencil is thrust into the enclosure 11 it will penetrate to the end wall 13 and upon displacement to the right hand side run against the threshold 14 whereby movement of the ring 12 is prohibited. This ring may only be moved to the right by means of a finger of sufficient length.

The reference numeral 16 indicates a partition wall portion shrouding the tongue 10 and forcing the actuating finger into the direction of that part ofthe actuator ring 12 not facing the locking claw.

Claims (7)

1. A child-safe cap for a container having a neck and means defining a shoulder extending around the neck and directed away from the upper end of the neck, the cap comprising an inner surface for fitting closely around said means for the cap to be freely rotatable on the container, a locking element engageable with said shoulder for locking the cap to the container, the locking element being urged resiliently for cooperation with said shoulder, and an actuator member for displacing the locking element against said resilient bias to allow removal of the cap from the container, the actuating member being located adjacent one end of an enclosure open only at the opposite end thereof and the actuating member being spaced from said open end by such a distance that it cannot be reached by a finger of a young child.

2. A child-safe cap as claimed in claim 1 wherein the locking element is carried at the free end of a resilient tongue which is integrally attached by its opposite end at the wall of the enclosure.

3. A child-safe cap as claimed in claim 2, wherein the tongue extends in the direction of an inner wall of the enclosure and is shielded against direct engagement by a finger inserted in the enclosure by a partition wall of the enclosure.

4. A child-safe cap as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the actuating member is annular and spaced from said one end of the closure, said end wall including a threshold to prevent release of the locking element by means of an elongate element inserted into the enclosure and through the actuating member.

5. A child-safe cap as claimed in claim 4, wherein the threshold has a side surface aligned with the inner periphery of the actuating member.

6. A child-safe cap substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

7. A container having a child-safe cap as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.