Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusions,with means to remove it by tearing off

Abstract

 Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion, of the type including an aluminium ring nut (3) to be shut around the neck of a bottle to block in its place the closing cap, letting a central hole (5) free for the access to said cap, and a protection lid (2) of the hole, applied to said ring nut, including in the side wall of said ring nut at least one incision line (8,9,14) suitable to define a tearing tongue (10), said incision line having an end that deviates to reach the lower edge of the ring nut.

Description

[0001] This invention proposes a capsule for the closing of bottles, in particular bottles for infusions, provided with tearing means suitable to allow the removal of the capsule and the complete separation of the parts made of different materials.

[0002] More in details, the capsule is configured so as to, after the use, the aluminium ring nut that keeps the closing cap in perforable rubber at its place can be removed from the bottle neck, being separated from both the rubber cap and the plastic protection lid.

[0003] To this purpose, the capsule provides the use of an aluminium ring nut, to be shut around the bottle neck in order to block the rubber cap, that presents two parallel incision lines running along the ring nut circumference and defining, with a slit appropriately shaped, a detachable tongue that allows the separation of the ring nut from the bottle.

[0004] One of these pre-fracture lines extends to reach the lower edge of the ring nut, so that, tearing the tongue away, this latter is opened and separated both from the bottle and from the other parts made of different materials.

[0005] As it is known, the bottles containing products for infusion are closed in general with a rubber cap, which is fixed in its place shutting in general around the bottle neck an aluminium ring nut, that presents on the upper side an opening suitable to perforate the rubber cap in order to take the product.

[0006] Above the ring nut is then applied a protection lid, generally in plastic, destined to be removed when used.

[0007] Recently, in many countries a law was approved that forces to separate, when the bottle is thrown away, the parts made of different materials, with the need therefore for the operator to break and remove the aluminium ring nut, in order to separate afterwards the glass bottle, the rubber cap, the aluminium ring nut and the plastic lid.

[0008] With the common closing capsules, this operations raises some difficulties, as it is necessary to operate with a pointed tool in order to break the ring nut and to separate the various components.

[0009] It is besides known a capsule for a bottle closed with a rubber cap including a first lid made of an aluminium rod with a hole in the centre, to be put over this rubber cap, an aluminium ring nut shaped so as to define, in the upper wall, a handle ring for the tearing off and the removal of the ring nut (which presents a pre-fracture line that connects the base of this handle ring with the lower edge of the ring nut) and a protection lid in plastic that lays on the ring nut and presents centrally a plurality of teeth protruding towards the lower part, which are inserted into the central hole of the disk that lays on the cap and are then turned outside in order to shut the disk and the aluminium ring nut against the closing lid.

[0010] This solution allows to achieve the required result, but at the cost of a certain degree of complication, as the capsule is made of three pieces and not of two as before and the need to make a ring in a single block with the ring nut implies a certain building complexity in the production equipment.

[0011] The present invention refers to this branch and has the purpose to get round the above mentioned limitations and difficulties.

[0012] To this purpose, the invention proposes a closing capsule for bottles for infusions made of only two pieces, in particular of an aluminium ring nut and a plastic protection slid, where the aluminium ring nut presents more pre-incision lines, in particular two, suitable to define a tongue for the ring nut removal and where one of said incision lines extends to reach the lower edge of the ring nut itself.

[0013] In this way, grasping the tongue and tearing off, also the ring nut is cut to the edge, allowing in this way to open it and easily remove it from the bottle, separing it at the same time from the rubber closing cap.

[0014] This invention is now described in details, as a non limitative example, with reference to the enclosed figures, where:
figure 1 is the view of the aluminium ring nut in a capsule according to the innovaion; figure 2 is a section of the protection lid to be applied to the ring nut - figure 3 is the view of a complete capsule, assembled.

[0015] With reference to the figures, the capsule according to the invention includes an element, generally in aluminium, shown in the whole with 1 in figure 1, to be applied to the neck of a bottle in order to keep the closing rubber cap in its place and a protection slid, shown in the whole with 2, to be fixed to this aluminium element 1.

[0016] The element 1 is substantially made of a annular ring nut 3 with the upper edge 4 bent so as to define a kind of annular wall that centrally presents a hole 5.

[0017] The annular ring nut 3 is inserted into the bottle neck and shut bending its lower edge inside.

[0018] The upper annular wall 4, then, lays against the rubber cap, keeping it in its place but allowing, through the hole 5, to reach this cap in order to perforate it and take the product.

[0019] Preferably, the wall 4 presents an annular stiffening rib 6 and has the edge 7 of the hole 5 bent so as to give to wall 4, in that area, a greater thickness.

[0020] On the side wall this ring nut 3 presents a couple of incisions, shown respectively with 8 and 9, which form the same number of preferential breaking lines.

[0021] The part of the ring nut 3 included between lines 8 and 9 forms a tearing tongue 10 and in correspondence of an end of this tongue a notch 11 is provided in the wall of the ring nut 3, in order to allow the raising and the firm grasping of the end of the tongue when the capsule is taken away.

[0022] In correspondence of this end area, in the tongue a series of scoring 12 or similar are provided, suitable to facilitate the grasp, and a rib 13 set with a lengthwise trend, that is it extends for a certain segment along the axis of tongue 10.

[0023] This rib 13 has the purpose to slightly stiffen the tongue 10 in correspondence of the area that is located near the edge of the notch 11, where the tongue is subject to the greatest stress when the tearing off begins.

[0024] According to a characteristic of the invention, the incision line, located nearer to the lower edge of the ring nut 3, in this specific case line 9, reaching a certain point of the circumference, meets an incision line 14 that turns towards the lower part, presenting a curve segment, or a segment bent at 90°, that reaches the lower edge.

[0025] This incision is located at a certain distance from the end of the tongue, between 45° and 180°, and is cut in the aluminium for the whole length that goes from the pre-fraction line to the edge, while it is only incised in correspondence of the edge.

[0026] In this way, during the tearing off the cut of the tongue turns towards the lower part at the meeting point between lines 9 and 14, provoking the breaking of the part of the ring nut that is located below the pre-fracture line 9.

[0027] As it is not cut in correspondence of the edge of the capsule, line 14 does not cause any problem during the closing, that normally happens by means of rollers that bend the aluminium of the edge below the ring of the bottle.

[0028] The protection lid 2 presents a side edge 15, the height of which, as shown with H in figure 2, is greater than the distance between the upper edge of ring nut 3 and the first of the incision lines 8.

[0029] In this way, when the lid is applied to the capsule, the side edge 15 is shut around the upper part of tongue 11, and keeps the free end pressed against the bottle neck in order to avoid that this end can protrude outside and then get entangled in the moving parts of the preparation equipment.

[0030] Then the lid 2, in correspondence of the lower wall, is provided with a plurality of teeth 16, suitable to be inserted into the hole 5 of wall 4 of the closing ring nut, in order to be bent outside and be folded in this way at the edge 7 of the capsule, and to keep the lid in its place.

[0031] The body 1 is applied to the container, inserting it on the bottle neck and then bending inside the lower edge of the ring nut 3, that engages a corresponding annular thickening provided on the bottle.

[0032] The body 2 was previuosly applied to body 1 of the capsule, inserting the teeth 16 into the opening 5 and then bending them outside, so as to shut the lid against the upper wall 4 of the capsule itself.

[0033] In order to reach the inside and take the liquid, the lid 2 is torn off, freeing in this way the opening 5 that allows to reach the perforable cap below.

[0034] Removing the lid, also the end 12 of the tongue 10 is freed and in this way, when at the end of the use it is necessary to remove the capsule in order to separate the various components, it is sufficient to grasp the end of the tongue and pull in order to separate the upper part of the capsule from the lower one.

[0035] At the end of the tearing off, the lower part bent of the ring nut 3 remains anyway attached to the end of the tongue, as the lower incision 9 meets line 14 that bends towards the lower part to reach edge 12.

[0036] In this way with only one movement first the upper and lower parts of ring nut 1 are separated along an horizontal line and then, when the separation goes on in correspondence of the final segment 14, also this ring nut is cut and it is in this way removed from the bottle.

[0037] With this solution, all parts made of different materials, in particular the protection lid in plastic 2, the aluminium ring nut 1 and the rubber closing cap are automatically separated when the capsule is took away from the bottle.

[0038] Of course, the dimensions, as well as the materials used could vary according to the needs.

Claims

1. Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion of the type including an aluminium ring nut to be shut around the neck of a bottle to block in its place the closing cap, letting a central hole to reach said cap, and a protection lid applied in said hole, characterized by the fact that it provides in the side wall of the ring nut two incision lines suitable to define a tearing tongue, where the lower incision line meets another incision line that bends towards the lower part to reach the lower edge of the ring nut.

2. Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion, according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that it provides two circular incision lines that extends along the whole surface of said ring nut, where the lower incision meets another one, bent or inclined, that curves towards the lower part to reach the lower edge of the ring nut.

3. Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion, according to the previous claims, characterized by the fact that said connecting line that bends towards the lower part to reach the lower edge of the ring nut is located between 45° and 180° with reference to the end of the tongue and it is cut

4. Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion, according to the previous claims, characterized by the fact that it provides a slit in correspondence of one end of said tongue, suitable to allow to bend and grasp said tongue.

5. Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion, according to the previous claims, characterized by the fact that said protection lid shows laterally a wall or edge directed towards the lower part, and the length of said edge extends to partially cover said tongue.

6. Capsule for the closing of bottles for infusion, according to the previous claims, characterized by the fact that it provides in correspondence of the ends of the tongue at least one lengthwise rib suitable to stiffen said tongue in correspondence of the area where the tearing off begins.

Drawing