GB2325920A

GB2325920A - A container

Info

Publication number: GB2325920A
Application number: GB9711817A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Mark Sheahan
Original assignee: Courtaulds Packaging Ltd
Current assignee: Albea UK Ltd
Priority date: 1997-06-06
Filing date: 1997-06-06
Publication date: 1998-12-09
Anticipated expiration: 2017-06-06
Also published as: ZA984541B; GB9711817D0; GB2325920B

Abstract

A container comprises a body portion and a lid which is a press fit on the body portion; the body portion having a base (8), a circumferential side wall (10) and a groove (12) in an outer face (14) of the side wall (10); the lid (6) having a top (16) and a circumferential side wall (18). The lid is made of a plastics material such that the side wall (18) of the lid is pressable into the groove (12) in the outer face (14) in order to cause the lid (6) to separate from the body portion (4) with a sliding action. The container has circumferentially spaced portions (56) for releaseably securing the lid on the body portion. The container has sealing means (36, 57) for sealing the lid on the body portion.

Description

A CONTAINER This invention relates to a container and, more especially, this invention relates to an easily opened container of the type disclosed in WO 95/23743.

The present invention provides a container comprising a body portion and a lid which is a press fit on the body portion: the body portion having a base, a circumferential side wall and a groove in an outer face of the side wall; the lid having a top and a circumferential side wall; the container being such that the side wall of the lid overlaps the side wall of the body portion when the lid is on the body portion; the lid being made of a plastics material such that the side wall of the lid is pressable into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion in order to cause the lid to separate from the body portion with a sliding action; and the container having securing means for releaseably securing the lid on the body portion, the securing means comprising a plurality of circumferentially spaced raised portions on an inner face of the side wall of the lid.

The present invention also provides a container comprising a body portion and a lid which is a press fit on the body portion; the body portion having a base, a circumferential side wall and a groove in an outer face of the side wall; the lid having a top and a circumferential side wall; the container being such that the side wall of the lid overlaps the side wall of the body portion when the lid is on the body portion; the lid being made of a plastics material such that the side wall of the lid is pressable into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion in order to cause the lid to separate from the body portion with a sliding action; and the container including sealing means for sealing the lid on the body portion, the sealing means comprising at least one raised portion on the lid, at least one raised portion on the body portion, the raised portion on the lid being on the top of the lid, and the raised portion on the body portion being on a free edge of the circumferential side wall of the body portion. Other types of sealing means may be employed if desired, for example a bead in the lid.

The container may include gas venting means for automatically venting any excess gases in the container and then re-sealing itself in order to seal the container. The gas venting means may comprise at least one raised portion on the lid and at least one raised portion on the body portion, the raised portion on the lid being provided on the circumferential side wall adjacent the top. The gas venting means may be the same as, or different from, the gas sealing means.

The use of a plastics material for producing the container of the present invention enables manufacturers to take advantage of plastics moulding techniques which cannot be used when working in metal such as tin. The plastics material lends itself to being embossed to receive appropriate advertising designs. The container lends itself to being printed and/or labelled, due to the ability of the container to be produced with flat exterior surfaces for the lid top and side wall and for the base of the body portion. The printing may be effected, for example, with pad printers for printing on the base of the body portion and the top of the lid, and with rotary printers for printing on the side walls of the lid and/or the body portion.

The container of the present invention can be produced to be the same size as existing containers made of tin so that there is no need for manufacturers to change their packaging. The container of the present invention can also be made to look as similar as possible to existing disc shaped containers made of tin, in order to reduce any resistance of the general public to buying and using a new type of container.

The -removal of the lid from the body portion is simply effected by pressing on the side wall of the lid.

A person pressing on the side wall of the lid can feel the groove in the side wall of the body portion. The user of the container always feels that the removal of the lid is being effected under their full control, which is often not the case with containers made of tin where a large separating force has to be applied and the lid suddenly comes away from the body portion, rather than in a controlled manner as occurs with the container of the present invention. With the container of the present invention, a simple press and release action on the side wall of the lid may be employed in order to cause the body portion to separate from the lid and, for example, fall onto a flat surface or into one hand of a person whilst their other hand retains hold of the lid.

This simple action may be effected by one hand which is important for persons only having the use of one hand, for example mothers who have a baby in one hand when applying a baby care lotion or cream.

The container may be one in which the lid has raised portions for facilitating the movement of the lid into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion, and for providing tolerance of parts in manufacture of the container.

Preferably, the container is one in which the groove has a pair of sides, and in which the side of the groove nearest the base engages the side wall of the lid and forces the lid away from the body portion as the side wall of the lid is pressed into the groove.

The container of the present invention will usually be such that the lid and the body portion are made of the same plastics materials. Different plastics materials for the lid and the body portion may however be employed. If desired, the base may be made of nonflexible materials such for example as glass, wood and metals, for example aluminium alloys. The container can contain any suitable and appropriate materials.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first disc shaped container in an open condition; Figure 2 is a bottom view of a body portion of the container shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view, partially in section, of the body portion shown in Figure 2; Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view of part of the body portion shown in Figure 3; Figure 5 is a top view of a lid forming part of the container shown in Figure 1; Figure 6 is a side view, partially in section, of the lid shown in Figure 5; Figure 7 is an enlarged view of part of the lid as shown in Figure 6; Figure 8 is a side view, partially in section, of the container shown in Figure 1 with the lid of Figure 5 on the body portion of Figure 2; Figure 9 is an enlarged sectional view of part of the container as shown in Figure 8; Figure 10 is a view of arrow A shown in Figure 7; Figure 11 is a bottom plan view of a lid shown in Figure 5; Figure 12 is an enlarged view of the part which is circled in Figure 11; Figure 13 is a side view in section of the lid shown in Figure 11; Figure 14 is an enlarged sectional view of the part which is circled in Figure 13; and Figure 15 is a section through a container in the form of a lipstick container.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a disc shaped container 2 comprising a body portion 4 and a lid 6 which is a press fit on the body portion 4.

The body portion 4 has a base 8, a circumferential side wall 10 and a groove 12 in an outer face 14 of the side wall 10. The lid 6 has a top 16 and a circumferential side wall 18.

The container 2 is such that the side wall 18 of the lid 6 overlaps the side wall 10 of the body portion 4 when the lid 6 is on the body portion 4, as can best be seen in Figures 8 and 9. The body portion 4 and the lid 6 are both made of a plastics material and in thicknesses such that the side wall 18 of the lid 6 is pressable into the groove 12 in the outer face 14 of the side wall 10 of the body portion 4, in order to cause the lid 6 to separate from the body portion 4 with a sliding action.

As can best be seen from Figures 4 and 9, the groove 12 is defined by a pair of sides 20, 22. The side 20 is the side of the groove 12 nearest the base 8.

As can be seen, this side 20 is a concave side 20. This side 20 engages the side wall 18 of the lid 6 and forces the lid 6 away from the body portion 4 as the side wall 18 of the lid 6 is pressed into the groove 12.

As can best be seen from Figure 9, the body portion 4 has a formation 24 which leads into the concave side 20 and which acts to facilitate an initial separating movement of the lid 6 from the body portion 4. The formation 24 is a convex formation as shown.

As can best be seen from Figures 7 and 9, the side wall 18 of the lid 6 has a bead portion 26 for sliding over the formation 24 during the initial separating movement. The bead portion 26 is thicker than an adjacent part 28 of the side wall 18 of the lid 6. In an alternative embodiment of the invention (not shown), the adjacent part 28 of the side wall 18 could be made thicker than is shown in Figures 7 and 9, in which case the bead portion 26 could be dispensed with and it could be replaced by a curved end of the side wall 18.

The top 16 and the side wall 18 of the lid 6 are of such a thickness that the lid is able to assume a slight elliptical shape when the side wall 18 is pressed into the groove 12. This breaks the seal (if applicable) avoiding any vacuum resistance and also enables a reduction of the contact area between the lid 6 and the body portion 4. This in turn reduces friction between the lid 6 and the body portion 4 and thus facilitates the removal of the lid 6 from the body portion 4. As the lid 6 slides away from the body portion 4, the contacting surface area between the lid 6 and the body portion 4 gets less and less so that the lid 6 moves easier and easier away from the body portion 4. A person opening the container 2 feels as though the lid 6 is being moved with good control. A simple squeeze and release action with one hand on the side wall 18 of the lid 6 is sufficient to cause the body portion 4 to drop into the other hand or onto a flat surface.

The side wall 10 of the body portion 4 has an inwardly inclined outer surface part 30, see Figures 4 and 9. This outer surface part 30 is at the end of the side wall 10 remote from the base 8. The side wall 18 of the lid 6 has an inclined part 32 between its ends, see Figures 7 and 9. The outer surface part 30 on the side wall 10 of the body portion 4 and the inclined part 32 on the side wall 18 of the lid 6 are such as to engage each other when the side wall 18 of the lid 6 is pressed fully into the groove 12. This engagement of the outer surface part 30 and the inclined part 32 ensures that the lid 6 is able to continue being slid away from the body portion 4.

The top 16 of the lid 6 has an inclined shoulder part 34 as shown in Figures 6 and 7. This inclined shoulder part 34 is positioned adjacent an inner surface 36 of the end of the side wall 10 of the body portion 4 remote from the base 8 when the container 2 is closed as shown in Figure 9. The inclined shoulder part 34 is such as to act to force any contents of the container 2 that are on the end of inner surface 36 of the side wall 10 of the body portion 4 back into the body portion 4.

As can best be seen in Figure 4, the base 8 of the body portion 4 has a plain inner surface 38. The base 8 of the body portion 4 has a grooved outer surface containing a groove 40. The groove 40 is important from a manufacturing aspect since it enables the plastics material in the adjacent vicinity to be moulded in a substantially uniform thickness and without the need to use a mould collapsing core for the inner part of body portion 4 to accommodate the side wall 20. If an alternative groove were to be provided at the inner position 41, then a mould collapsing core would have been needed and this would substantially increase the cost of the mould for moulding the body portion 4 and would make the mould tool more fragile as it has more moving parts. This in turn would mean that more maintenance for the tools would be required. It is necessary to have the plastics material of a uniform thickness so that, during moulding, even cooling is achieved. With too much uneven cooling, the moulded body portion 4 could develop moulding defects.

In order to keep a user's hand clean of the contents while dispensing, for example when a brush is employed as with shoe polish, the lid part 26 can be slid over the base part 47 to create a gripping arrangement for the user's hand as shown in Figures 4 and 7. The formation 24 can be an internally projecting annular rib, preferably a broken rib, which engages externally projecting annular ribs, preferably broken, formed on the base part 47 where the two parts overlap.

The lid 6 has a central recessed area 42 and the body portion 4 has a raised area 45 that is such that it fits into the lid central recessed area 42 to create stacking, as shown in Figures 4 and 7.

The side wall 10 of the body portion 4 has an inner surface 44 which is provided with two circumferentially extending ribs 43 as best shown in Figure 4. The ribs 43 help to retain the contents of the container 2 in the body portion 4 if the contents are shoe polish or a similar material and the contents have started to harden, crack and have a tendency to fall out of the body portion 4. If desired, in an alternative embodiment of the invention (not shown) the inner surface 44 of the side wall 10 could be plain.

The side wall 18 of the lid 6 may have a formation (not shown) on its outer surface 46 for indicating where the side wall 18 of the lid 6 should be pressed in order to open the container 2. The formation may be a raised formation with a depression therein for receiving fingers and a thumb of a person squeezing the lid 6.

The lid 6 and/or the body portion 4 may have a formation (not shown) for preventing sealing of the body portion 4 when the container 2 is closed.

Referring to Figure 9, the container 2 has securing means for releasably securing the lid 6 on the body portion 4. The securing means comprises a raised portion on the body portion 4 in the form of a lidengaging part 48 which is positioned between the outer surface part 30 and the groove 12. The securing means also comprises a raised portion on the lid 6 in the form of a body portion-engaging part 50. One or both of these parts 48, 50 may be provided with raised areas to act as the formation for preventing the sealing of the body portion 4 when the container 2 is closed. If both parts 48 and 50 where continuous diameters (i.e. no gaps) it would produce a sealing effect where they meet and this is not desired. As an alternative or supplement to the raised areas, a breathing channel 52 in the lid 6 (see Figure 10) may be employed, or any other suitable and appropriate type of formation may be employed.

The container 2 also comprises sealing means for sealing the lid 6 on the body portion 4. More specifically, sealing occurs automatically when the lid 6 is closed due to a flat surface 57 on the lid 6 meeting under pressure the flat surface 36 on the base 4 remote from the end 8; the surfaces 36, 57 then form the sealing means. The two surfaces 36, 57 meet under pressure caused by the movement of the lid-engaging part 48 and the body portion-engaging part 50 sliding together.

The container 2 also comprises venting means for automatically venting any excess gases in the container 2. More specifically, if the contents of the container 2 should give off gases, the gases may need to escape.

The pressure build up of the gases will be enough to move the flat surfaces 36, 57 apart because of a sliding action of the parts 48, 50. The flat surfaces 36, 57 then reseal after the gases have escaped automatically as the lid-engaging part 48 and the body portionengaging part 50 move away from each other and then back. The surfaces 36, 57 thus also form the venting means but in doing so, they act in a different manner to when they form the sealing means.

The container 2 is for containing shoe polish for shoes or other footwear. The shoe polish can be heated to 600C and then run into the body portion 4, in a similar manner as known containers made of metal are filled. The temperature of 60 C is not so high that it adversely causes stresses in the plastics material employed from which the body portion 4 is moulded.

The body portion 4 and the lid 6 are produced in shapes which enable them to be moulded such that unwanted stresses in the plastics material are minimised. Unwanted stresses tend to occur when different wall thickness are used so as to make parts of the container 2 expand or contract at different rates, and the illustrated shape for the body portion 4 and the lid 6 is intended to minimise such adverse stresses as far as possible.

As an alternative to using a hot feed gate on the outer surfaces of top 16 of lid 6 and bottom 8 of base 4 in the mould tooling, as on conventional plastics containers, the plastics material may be fed into the container 2 moulds from an area inside the lid 6 and base 4, so that the residual pip which is generally formed when the feed hole is closed, is not visible when the container 2 is standing on a shelf or the like.

Also, the pip will then be on a part of the container 2 that will not normally be printed on. This may be preferred because repeated printing over a number of pips on a number of containers 2 may tend adversely to affect the printing equipment being used or interfere with labelling.

The illustrated container 2 is for containing 50ml of shoe polish. The container 2 may be made in any suitable and appropriate sizes but it will usually be such as to contain from 40-llOml of contents. If it is desired to make the container 2 bigger than shown, it is easy to elongate the side wall 10 of the base 4 and the various above mentioned design features can all be retained. Alternatively or in addition, the diameter of the lid 6 and the base 4 can be reduced or widened up or down to a point where the container can still be comfortably opened in a person's hand. For a firm feel and quick and easy spring action opening, when the container 2 is closed, the lid 6 and the base 4 should be such that the part 36 touches part 57 of the lid 6, the parts 48, 50 lock together, and the parts 24, 26 also touch each other.

Referring now to Figures 11-14, there is shown a lid 6 with eight raised portions 56 for facilitating the movement of the lid into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion, and for providing tolerance of parts in manufacture of the disc shaped container. Eight raised portions 56 are currently preferred as it spreads the load evenly and a user can press anywhere around the lid part 18 to open the container. The raised portions 56 are provided as high spots where the lid 6 and the body portion 4 meet and lock together when the container 2 is closed. The raised portions 56 are easily reduced in height for initial mould production in order to ensure that the lid 6 is not too tight a fit on the body portion 4. Also the raised portions 56 reduce friction between the lid 6 and the body portion 4 to facilitate easy opening and assist the movement of the wall of the lid as it has somewhere to deform to. This overcomes tolerance problems. If a continuous diameter on diameter were used instead of the raised portions 56 it would have given the opening and closing action a very hard feel and would have meant that if for example an eight impression mould tool were used for both the lid and the base, the combination of sixty four separate fitments would make it very unlikely that they would have all fitted together.

Referring now to Figure 15, there is shown a container 2 in the form of a lipstick container 2.

Similar parts as in previous Figures have been given the same reference numerals for ease of comparison and understanding. The lipstick container 2 shown in Figure 15 overcomes problems that can occur in the join between the body portion and the lid of known lipstick containers. More specifically, in the known lipstick containers, the join can be too tight or too loose due to varying manufacturing tolerances. If the join is too loose, the lid is likely to become dislodged from the body portion, leaving the lipstick in the body portion free to make a mess, for example in a user's handbag, purse or pocket. If the join is too tight, then difficulty may be experienced in removing the lid in order to use the lipstick. With the lipstick container shown in Figure 15, the lid 6 seals to the body portion 4 at a join 58, and the join 58 is neither too tight nor too loose.

It is to be appreciated that the embodiments of the invention described above with reference to the accompanying drawings have been given by way of example only and that modifications may be effected. Thus, for example, the illustrated container 2 has been described containing shoe polish. The container may however contain any other suitable and appropriate type of fluid material. Usually, the material will be semi-solid or in the form of a gel. Also, the container 2 can be made of many different types and grades of plastics materials. The chosen plastics material should be chemically inert to the intended contents of the container 2. If desired, the container 2 or a part of the container 2, for example the base 4, can be made from a natural plastics material so as to be transparent or opaque so that the contents of the container 2 can be seen or not.

Claims

CLAIM

1. A container comprising a body portion and a lid which is a press fit on the body portion: the body portion having a base, a circumferential side wall and a groove in an outer face of the side wall; the lid having a top and a circumferential side wall; the container being such that the side wall of the lid overlaps the side wall of the body portion when the lid is on the body portion; the lid being made of a.plastics material such that the side wall of the lid is pressable into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion in order to cause the lid to separate from the body portion with a sliding action; and the container having securing means for releaseably securing the lid on the body portion, the securing means comprising a plurality of circumferentially spaced raised portions on an inner face of the side wall of the lid.

2. A container comprising a body portion and a lid which is a press fit on the body portion: the body portion having a base, a circumferential side wall and a groove in an outer face of the side wall; the lid having a top and a circumferential side wall; the container being such that the side wall of the lid overlaps the side wall of the body portion when the lid is on the body portion; the lid being made of a plastics material such that the side wall of the lid is pressable into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion in order to cause the lid to separate from the body portion with a sliding action; and the container including sealing means for sealing the lid on the body portion, the sealing means comprising at least one raised portion on the lid, at least one raised portion on the body portion, the raised portion on the lid being on the top of the lid, and the raised portion on the body portion being on a free edge of the circumferential side wall of the body portion.

3. A container according to claim 2 and including gas venting means for automatically venting any excess gases in the container and then re-sealing itself in order to seal the container.

4. A container according to claim 3 in which the gas venting means comprises at least one raised portion on the lid and at least one raised portion on the body portion, the raised portion on the lid being provided on the circumferential side wall adjacent the top.

5. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the lid has raised portions for facilitating the movement of the lid into the groove in the outer face of the side wall of the body portion, and for providing tolerance of parts in manufacture of the container.

6. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the groove has a pair of sides, and in which the side of the groove nearest the base engages the side wall of the lid and forces the lid away from the body portion as the side wall of the lid is pressed into the groove.

7. A container according to claim 6 in which the body portion has a formation which leads into the concave side of the groove and which acts to facilitate an initial separating movement of the lid from the body portion, the formation being a convex formation.

8. A container according to claim 7 in which the side wall of the lid has a bead portion for sliding over the formation during the initial separating movement, the bead portion being thicker than an adjacent part of the side wall of the lid.

9. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the top and the side wall of the lid are of such a thickness that the lid is able to assume a slight elliptical shape when the side wall is pressed into the groove, thereby to reduce the contact area between the lid and the body portion and thereby to reduce the friction between the lid and the body portion and to facilitate removal of the lid from the body portion.

10. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the side wall of the body portion has an inwardly inclined outer surface part at its end remote from the base, and in which the side wall of the lid has an inclined part between its two ends, the inwardly inclined outer surface part of the side wall of the body portion and the inclined part of the side wall of the lid being such as to engage each other when the side wall of the lid is pressed fully into the groove, and to ensure that the lid is able to continue being slid away from the body portion.

11. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the lid has an inclined shoulder part which is positioned adjacent an inner surface of the end of the side wall of the body portion remote from the base when the container is closed, the inclined shoulder part being such as to act to force any contents of the container that are on the end of the side wall of the body portion back into the body portion.

12. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the base of the body portion has a single groove in its outer surface.

13. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which the side wall of the body portion has an inner surface which is provided with at least one circumferentially extending rib.

14. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which at least one of the lid and the body portion has a formation for sealing or preventing sealing of the body portion when the container is closed.