EP0090639B1 - Récipients emboîtables - Google Patents

Récipients emboîtables Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0090639B1
EP0090639B1 EP19830301752 EP83301752A EP0090639B1 EP 0090639 B1 EP0090639 B1 EP 0090639B1 EP 19830301752 EP19830301752 EP 19830301752 EP 83301752 A EP83301752 A EP 83301752A EP 0090639 B1 EP0090639 B1 EP 0090639B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
cup
cups
container
corner
shoulder
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
EP19830301752
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0090639A2 (fr
EP0090639A3 (en
Inventor
David Tomkins
Oswald V. D'silva
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Lin Pac Plastic Containers Ltd
Original Assignee
Lin Pac Plastic Containers Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Lin Pac Plastic Containers Ltd filed Critical Lin Pac Plastic Containers Ltd
Publication of EP0090639A2 publication Critical patent/EP0090639A2/fr
Publication of EP0090639A3 publication Critical patent/EP0090639A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0090639B1 publication Critical patent/EP0090639B1/fr
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
    • B65D1/00—Rigid or semi-rigid containers having bodies formed in one piece, e.g. by casting metallic material, by moulding plastics, by blowing vitreous material, by throwing ceramic material, by moulding pulped fibrous material or by deep-drawing operations performed on sheet material
    • B65D1/22—Boxes or like containers with side walls of substantial depth for enclosing contents
    • B65D1/26—Thin-walled containers, e.g. formed by deep-drawing operations
    • B65D1/265—Drinking cups
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
    • B65D85/00—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials
    • B65D85/70—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials for materials not otherwise provided for
    • B65D85/804—Disposable containers or packages with contents which are mixed, infused or dissolved in situ, i.e. without having been previously removed from the package
    • B65D85/816—Disposable containers or packages with contents which are mixed, infused or dissolved in situ, i.e. without having been previously removed from the package into which liquid is added and the resulting preparation is retained, e.g. cups preloaded with powder or dehydrated food
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
    • B65D2313/00—Connecting or fastening means
    • B65D2313/02—Connecting or fastening means of hook-and-loop type

Definitions

  • Thin-walled plastics cups and other containers are now commonplace. For transport, e.g. from a place of manufacture to a place of use, such cups or other containers are nested together to form stacks.
  • the cups or other containers in such nested stacks tend to jam together and in an attempt to overcome this each cup or other container has been provided with stacking means.
  • stacking means comprises an internal upwardly-facing surface and a stacking surface. The surfaces are located in planes normal to the central axis of the cup or other container. In an upright stack the stacking surface of each intermediate cup or other container rests on the internal upwardly-facing surface of the cup or other container below, whilst its internal surface supports the external surface of the cup above.
  • Such stacking means are sufficient to ensure that the cups or other containers do not jam together when a stack is formed and handled carefully.
  • a stack is subject to an axial shock load by being jolted, for example when a case of such stacks is unloaded from a vehicle or is subjected to vibration during transport; the outer edge of the external stacking surface of one cup or other container overrides the inner edge of the internal upwardly-facing surface of the cup or other container below.
  • Such cups are known as ingredient cups and typically the ingredient is a powder which will provide a beverage when an individual cup is removed from the stack and filled with hot water.
  • the additional weight of the ingredient means that the weight of each stack is greater than the weight of a corresponding stack of empty cups.
  • stacks of ingredient cups are more prone to jamming during transport or when they are unloaded from a vehicle.
  • US-A-3288340 Such a construction is shown in US-A-3288340.
  • the known construction comprises a nestable cup or other container with a bottom and a side wall, and including stacking means comprising a circumferential shoulder having an internal, upwardly-facing surface inclined in a direction downwards and outwards and terminating at an acute angled convex corner, the surface being either continuous or interrupted to form castellations, so that, when a plurality of identical cups or other containers are assembled together into an upright stack, the corner of the cup or other container makes localised contact with a stacking surface of the cup or other container above, the corner engaging the stacking surface away from its edge.
  • the above-mentioned disadvantages can be mitigated by the solution defined in claims 1 and 5.
  • any vertical shock loading applied to a stack of such cups or other containers is cushioned by resilient deformation of the stacking surface. Further, since the internal upwardly-facing shoulder is inclined outwards and downwards, after the stacking surface has been deformed, both shoulder and stacking surface are inclined outwards and downwards and therefore axial shock loading between these surfaces generates forces tending to expand the stacking surface and contract the internal shoulder, so resisting the external shoulder overriding the internal shoulder.
  • the internal upwardly facing shoulder may be castellated with alternate lands being inclined.
  • the lower edge of the inclined lands merge with the lands that lie in a plane normal to the axis of the cup or other container and thus the stacking surface of the cup above rests on the acute-angled convex corners at the upper ends of the inclined lands.
  • the internal upwardly facing shoulders of the stacking means may be located anywhere along the side wall of the cup or other container.
  • the internal upwardly facing shoulder is usually located at and used to define the top of the ingredient pocket in the cup or other container.
  • the inner upwardly facing shoulder is formed by a continuous annular downwardly and outwardly inclined surface. With such a construction a continuous seal is provided all around between the upper corner of this surface and the stacking surface of the cup or other container above so holding the ingredient in its pocket and preventing its migration during transport and handling.
  • the resistance to the overriding of the stacking means of such cups is increased still further by modifying the side wall of the cups or other containers to include a plurality of circumferentially spaced externally projecting nibs having bases inclined downwards and outwards around the stacking means and arranged so that when a plurality of identical cups or other containers are nested to form an upright stack, the nibs on the upper cup or container are very close to, or touch, the interior of the side wall of the next cup below.
  • any axial shock loading applied to the stack is absorbed by resilient deformation of the side wall where it is engaged by the nibs and also the nibs help in centralising the cups or other containers in the stack so that there is the optimum overlap between the stacking means of adjacent cups or other containers. Since the base of each nib is also inclined downwardly and outwardly this helps increase the digging in effect of the nib into the side wall of the cup or other container below and so increases its resistance to overriding of the stacking means.
  • the cups or other containers are made from high impact polystyrene, other grades of polystyrene, polypropylene, or polyvinyl chloride.
  • the shape of the cup is determined by the shape of the cavity in the female mould, which operates as a rigid unit apart from an ejector in its base.
  • the deformation of a heated sheet of plastics is started mechanically by a plug, and is finished by the admission of air under pressure to the interior of a pre-form created by the plug. There is no use of vacuum and thus the apparatus is simple.
  • the corners of the mould which produce the sharp acute-angled corner along the upper edge of the internal upwardly facing shoulder has a radius in cross section not exceeding 0.25 mm
  • the corners in the mould which produces the other corners at the edges of the upwardly and downwardly facing shoulders also have a radius in cross section not exceeding 0.25 mm.
  • the surface of the mould which forms the inner upwardly facing shoulder is inclined downwards and outwards at an angle of 7° to the horizontal. This angle may be varied within the range 5° to 10° to the horizontal.
  • FIG 4 shows a cup in accordance with this invention formed as an ingredient cup 11.
  • the annular shoulder 5 between the corners 8 and 9 has a downward and outward slope.
  • Figure 5 shows a stack of two such cups 11A and 11 B and nested together.
  • the sharp acute-angled corner 9 at the inside of the downwardly and outwardly inclined annular shoulder 5 of the cup 11 B engages the bottom 3 of the cup 11A away from its outer corner 10.
  • a circular line contact is established between the two cups to define the ingredient pocket 6.
  • the shoulder 5 is inclined at 7° to a plane normal to the axis of the cups.
  • both of these zones are inclined downwards and outwards and hence further axial loading results in the bottom 3 of the cup 11A tending to expand whilst the shoulder 5 of cup 11 B tends to contact and these forces interact to positively prevent overriding of the corner 10 over the corner 9 and as shown in Figure 2.
  • the inclination of the shoulder 5 positively prevents the jamming of a stack of nested cups together.
  • a typical cup as shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6 may be of 7 fluid ounce (200 ml) capacity, may be made by thermoforming from a sheet of high impact polystyrene having an initial thickness of 0.8 mm. Each cup uses a disc 74.5 mm in diameter. The deformation of the heated sheet is started mechanically by a plug and is finished by the emission of air under pressure into the interior of the preform created by the plug.
  • the corners in the mould which produce the corners 8, 9 and 10 in the cup all have radii in cross section not exceeding 0.25 mm. It is preferred that for most of the particular cup the measurements of the vertical centre line of the mould are as follows:
  • the thickness of the sheet around the shoulders 4, 5 and in the bottom 3 is preferably nowhere less than 0.15 mm.
  • the second example of cup in accordance with this invention is shown in Figure 7 and in this second example the continuous inclined annular shoulder 5 is interrupted to form a castellated shoulder.
  • a series of shoulders 5 (lands) inclined to a plane normal to the axis of the cup is intercollated with lands 4 which lie in a plane normal to the axis of the cup.
  • a normal stack of such cups is shown in Figure 8 and the bottom 3 of cup 12A is normally supported on the corners 9 of the inside edge of the inclined lands 5.
  • Both examples of cups in accordance with this invention include a number of radially extending nibs 14 located immediately above the inclined annular shoulder 5. This feature will be described in detail with reference to Figure 10 which is the first example.
  • the nibs 14 are arranged so that there is minimal or possibly zero clearance between the apeces of the nibs 14 of cup 13A and the side wall 2 of the cup 13B when cup 13A is nested inside cup 13B as shown in Figure 11.
  • the outer periphery of the bottom 3 distorts in a similar fashion to that already described.
  • the apeces of the nibs 14 on the cup 13A begin to dig in and deform the side wall 2 of the cup 13B.
  • This digging in and deformation provides an additional force to absorb the shock of any axial load and decreases the restoring force to return the cups to their normal nested configuration.
  • the nibs 14 also have the effect of centralising the cups together which again helps to prevent the corner 10 overriding the corner 9 as a result of any misalignment between adjacent cups of the stack.
  • a modification is shown in Figure 12 and in this modification the nib 14 has a steeply inclined base 15.
  • the steeply inclined base 15 increases the sharpness of a corner 16 between the apex of the nib 14 and its base and helps to increase the digging in effect of the nib 14 into the side wall 2 of a cup below it in a stack, thus increasing its resistance to impaction still further.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Ceramic Engineering (AREA)
  • Stackable Containers (AREA)

Claims (6)

1. Gobelet ou autre récipient, pouvant être emboîté, comprenant un fond (3), une paroi latérale (2), et des moyens d'empilement comportant un épaulement circonférenciel doté d'une surface interne (5) tournée vers le haut, inclinée en direction descendante vers l'extérieur et se terminant par un coin convexe (9) à angle aigu, cette surface étant soit continue, soit interrompue pour former des créneaux, de sorte que lorsque plusieurs gobelets (11, 12, 13) ou autres récipients, identiques, sont assemblés en une pile verticale, le coin (9) du gobelet (11B, 12B, 13B) ou autre récipient réalise alors. un contact localisé avec la surface d'empilement du gobelet (11A, 12A, 13A) ou autre récipient se trouvant au-dessus, le contact entre ce coin (9) et la surface d'empilement se situant à distance de son bord (10), caractérisé en ce qu'une pluralité de becs (14) circonférencielle- ment espacés, formant saillie vers l'extérieur, ayant des bases inclinées en direction descendante vers l'extérieur, sont inclus autour des moyens d'empilement et sont agencés de manière que, lorsque les gobelets (13A) ou autres récipients sont emboîtés, les becs (14) sur le gobelet ou récipient supérieur (13A) soient très proches, ou au contact, de l'intérieur de la paroi latérale (2) du gobelet (13B) immédiatement en dessous.
2. Gobelet ou autre récipient selon la revendication 1, réalisé en polystyrène à grande résistance aux chocs, en polystyrène d'autres qualités, en polypropylène ou en chlorure de polyvinyle.
3. Gobelet ou autre récipient selon la revendication 1 ou 2, dans lequel l'épaulement intérieur (5), tourné vers le haut, est incliné selon un angle compris entre 5° et 10° par rapport à un plan normal à l'axe du gobelet (13) ou autre récipient.
4. Gobelet ou autre récipient selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel l'épaisseur des moyens d'empilement (4, 5) et du fond (3) n'est en aucun endroit sensiblement inférieure à 0,15 mm.
5. Méthode de fabrication d'un gobelet ou autre récipient selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle un matériau en feuille de matière plastique est formé sous pression dans un moule femelle ayant des coins qui, considérés en coupe, ont des rayons n'excédant pas 0,25 mm.
6. Méthode selon la revendication 5, dans laquelle la partie du moule qui forme l'épaulement (5) tourné vers le haut est inclinée d'un angle compris dans une plage de 5° à 10° par rapport à un plan normal à l'axe du gobelet (13) ou autre récipient.
EP19830301752 1982-03-29 1983-03-29 Récipients emboîtables Expired EP0090639B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB8209128 1982-03-29
GB8209128 1982-03-29

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0090639A2 EP0090639A2 (fr) 1983-10-05
EP0090639A3 EP0090639A3 (en) 1984-09-26
EP0090639B1 true EP0090639B1 (fr) 1987-03-25

Family

ID=10529352

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19830301752 Expired EP0090639B1 (fr) 1982-03-29 1983-03-29 Récipients emboîtables

Country Status (2)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0090639B1 (fr)
DE (1) DE3370464D1 (fr)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
USD1035386S1 (en) 2021-12-08 2024-07-16 Ball Corporation Tapered cup

Families Citing this family (17)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB8617764D0 (en) * 1986-07-21 1986-08-28 Gen Foods Ltd Cup
DE3843861A1 (de) * 1988-12-24 1990-06-28 Unilever Nv Aus einer kunststoff-folie tiefgezogener behaelter
DE4421870A1 (de) * 1994-06-23 1996-01-11 Polarcup Gmbh Stapelbarer, dünnwandiger Behälter
GB201016561D0 (en) * 2010-10-01 2010-11-17 Cup Company Franchise The Ltd Improvements in beverage cups
US9314089B2 (en) * 2011-06-16 2016-04-19 Huhtamaki, Inc. Container having enhanced wall integrity and alignment element
JP5837958B2 (ja) * 2014-03-24 2015-12-24 サーモス株式会社 金属製真空断熱容器
US11370579B2 (en) 2017-02-07 2022-06-28 Ball Corporation Tapered metal cup and method of forming the same
US10875076B2 (en) 2017-02-07 2020-12-29 Ball Corporation Tapered metal cup and method of forming the same
USD950318S1 (en) 2018-05-24 2022-05-03 Ball Corporation Tapered cup
USD906056S1 (en) 2018-12-05 2020-12-29 Ball Corporation Tapered cup
USD968893S1 (en) 2019-06-24 2022-11-08 Ball Corporation Tapered cup
EP4010885B1 (fr) * 2019-08-06 2024-08-28 Lavazza Professional North America, LLC Gobelet, pile de gobelets et distributeur automatique de boissons la contenant
USD953811S1 (en) 2020-02-14 2022-06-07 Ball Corporation Tapered cup
USD974845S1 (en) 2020-07-15 2023-01-10 Ball Corporation Tapered cup
CA3196939A1 (fr) 2020-10-30 2022-05-05 Jonathan A. WHITMORE Gobelet metallique evase et son procede de formation
USD1012617S1 (en) 2021-02-22 2024-01-30 Ball Corporation Tapered cup
EP4234421A1 (fr) * 2022-02-28 2023-08-30 Seda International Packaging Group Spa Pile de gobelets à parois distancées

Family Cites Families (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3288340A (en) * 1964-05-25 1966-11-29 Sweetheart Plastics Nestable container
US3441173A (en) * 1967-08-09 1969-04-29 Illinois Tool Works Stackable container
US3934725A (en) * 1972-03-13 1976-01-27 Illinois Tool Works Inc. Nestable article
ES226693Y (es) * 1977-02-25 1978-01-01 Vaso para beber.

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
USD1035386S1 (en) 2021-12-08 2024-07-16 Ball Corporation Tapered cup

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
DE3370464D1 (en) 1987-04-30
EP0090639A2 (fr) 1983-10-05
EP0090639A3 (en) 1984-09-26

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