Closure cap and package

Jan. 25, 1944.

2,339,827

W. P. WHITE

CLOSURE CAP AND PACKAGE

Filed April 24, 1940

CM

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Patented Jan. 25, 1944

2,339,827

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

2,339,827

CLOSURE CAP AND PACKAGE

William P. White, Glencoe, Hl., assignor to White Cap Company, Chicago, HL, a corporation of Delaware

Application April 24,1940, Serial No. 331,339 (Cl. 215—40)

In said drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a closure cap embodying my invention, looking at the under or interior side of same;

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the gasket used in the cap shown in Fig. 1, same being shown partly in section;

Fig. 3 is a detail on a considerably enlarged scale, showing in section the upper end portion of a packing vessel and a closure cap embodying my invention resting thereon preliminary to movement to sealing position;

Fig. 4 is a detail like Fig. 3 in all respects, excepting that the closure cap is shown in fully seated or sealed position on the vessel; and

Fig. 5 is a detail section like Fig. 4 but showing the closure cap in sealed position on a packing vessel of slightly modified form, same constituting a package or a packing container constituting my invention.

Closure caps of the types illustrated in my United States Patents Nos. 1,590,787 and 1,807,187 have been used with success, particularly in commercial canning of food stuffs and the like. It has been observed, however, that when subjected to the action of certain oils and acids which are present in many canned food commodities, rubber gaskets tend to “grow,”, or swell somewhat in thickness and in size. Thus, after a package containing such a material has been opened in the first instance and only a part of the contents used and the closure then re-applied, it has frequently occurred that due to the resulting growth of the gasket it has become very difficult, after a subsequent removal of the closure, to reapply it and make it stay in place. It has been observed that under such conditions the closure sometimes exhibits a “pumping” action, viz., after being pressed down to position on the vessel, it will rise or creep upwardly again when the pressing-down force is removed. This is particularly likely to occur where oily products, such as salad dressings, peanut butter and the like, are involved, due to the fact that some of the oily 45

Claims.

This invenion relates to improvements in closure caps for the hermetic sealing of packing vessels such as jars, bottles, cans and the like, and also to an improved package or packing container formed therewith.

The present invention relates to a type of cap which is adapted to be hermetically sealed on the packing vessel simply by forcing it downwardly onto the mouth thereof in such fashion as to compress an elastic gasket, which is carried by the cap, against a peripheral sealing surface of the vessel, the closure, after such application, being held in place by the frictional engagement of the compressed elastic gasket with the peripheral surface of the vessel.

The principal objects of the present invention are to provide such a closure cap which can be applied to the vessel with greater ease and certainty in the first instance, which will exercise very effective frictional gripping and sealing action on the vessel and thereby hold its place with security and form a reliable airtight seal, and more particularly, one which can be easily removed from the vessel by proper manipulation and thereafter re-applied to the vessel with, particular facility, to effect a re-seal, and which.iri such re-application, may be moved immediately to fully seated and sealed position off the vessel, and will hold its place securely even though the sealing surface of the vessel may be moist or oily. ³⁰

Another object of the invention is the provision of such a closure cap possessing the advantages just mentioned and which is particularly adapted to accommodate variations in the size and contour of the vessel’s peripheral sealing surface and also form an immediate and completely hermetic seal thereon in spite of irregularities, such as crizzles, in said sealing surfaces.

Other and further objects of the invention will be pointed out or indicated hereinafter or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon an understanding of the construction and operation of my improved closure cap or use of it in actual practice.

For the purpose of aiding in explanation of the invention, I show in the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, and hereinafter describe, certain forms in which it may be embodied. It is to be understood, however, that these are presented merely for illustration, and are not to be construed in any fashion for the purpose of limiting the appended claims short of the true and most comprehensive scope of the invention in the art.

substance usually finds its way onto more or less of the area of the peripheral sealing surface when the package is first opened, or even behind the gasket, where it acts as a lubricant preventing the desired frictional holding effect of the gasket.

The difficulties are effectively overcome by the present invention in a fashion which' will be pointed out presently in connection with the following description of the illustrative embodiments of the invention shown in the drawing.

It is to be understood that the closure cap

2,339,837 here illustrated comprises a cap-shaped shell, formed with a top portion II, of proper size and shape to cover the mouth of the intended . vessel, and a depending flange or skirt conforming to the peripheral shape of the mouth of the vessel but of a size to receive it with a clearance. The lower part i I of the shell skirt is of downwardly flaring form, and above said flaring part the skirt is of smaller diameter, constituting a constricting part 12, the flaring part extending at a very obtuse angle from said constricting part. The marginal portion of the skirt is flanged inwardly and upwardly within the flaring part until its edge is well above the lower limit of the latter, as indicated at 14, so as to bite into and grip the lower end portion of the gasket IS and securely fasten the gasket in the shell and hold it against upward displacement therein. The skirt is strongly resilient, and while the inexpansible top portion at its upper end and the relatively inexpansible bead formed by the flange 14 at its lower end retain the upper and lower extremities of the skirt from distension, the form of the skirt between the said upper and lower limits permits of some distension against the force of its inherent resilience, which distension tends to straighten or reduce the angularity between the constraining part 12 and flaring part 11.

The gasket IS is elastically deformable in the sense that it tends to return to its original shape and size when deformed under stresses. It may be made of rubber composition or other sealing material having the desired qualities of imperviousness to air, elasticity, ability to resist oxidation, conformability and frictional characteristic or clinging ability against a smooth surface of glass or metal. It may be made of somewhat greater thickness' than gaskets heretofore employed in caps of this general type.

In its primary or original condition, this gasket is of substantially cylindrical sleeve form, as illustrated in Fig. 2, and is of a diameter approximately the same as that of the lower, margin of the shell skirt and large enough in its¹ undistended condition to admit the sealing surface of the vessel. It has a further important characterizing feature, moreover, in that its depth or length is such that it will extend but slightly above the lower limit of the constricting part 12 of the skirt when in its normal position in the shell, so that the upper terminus of the gasket will be closer to said lower limit than to the top 10. Due to the fact that it is of materially greater diameter than the constricting part 12 of the skirt, the gasket must be considerably compressed or constricted circumferentially, especially in its upper portion, when inserted in the shell, in which condition it is held by the encompassing skirt portions when secured by the flange 14. and as a result of which it hugs the inner surface of the skirt very closely.

As a result, when in normal position in the shell, the gasket takes a downwardly flaring form and its upper portion extends inwardly from the constricting part of the skirt to an extent considerably exceeding the radial clearance between the constricting part !2 and the peripheral sealing surface of the vessel for which the closure is designed. The upper portion of the vessel is illustrated at 16 and its peripheral sealing surface at 16q. This sealing surface is preferably as smooth and regular as possible and, in a round mouth vessel, of approximately cylindrical form,

i. e., extending approximately normal to the radius of the mouth.

In the application of the closure to the vessel, it is first placed thereon in the relationship illus5 trated in Fig. 3, approximately concentrically, and with the sloping inner side of the gasket resting upon the upper and outer portion of the vessel wall. In this disposal it is to be observed that the sealing surface of the vessel enters the 10 gasket at quite an acute angle, and that only a minor portion of the total height of the gasket is above the upper limit of the vessel’s sealing surface, although the upper end portion of the gasket juts inwardly beyond said sealing surface IS to a considerable extent. The closure is forced to sealed and seated position on the vessel by pressing it downwardly thereon, whereby the sealing surface is intruded within the upper constricted portion of the gasket, the gasket sliding 20 downwardly on the sealing surface until the closure reaches its fully seated position, which is illustrated in Fig. 4.

Incident to this seating of the closure, the upper portion of the gasket is very highly com23 pressed in the radial directions between the sealing surface of the vessel and the lower part of the constricting portion 12 of the skirt, and, being elastically deformable, the gasket is thereby slightly elongated or elastically molded upwardly 30 to a location only slightly above the lower limit of the constricting part 12. While the actual distance to which the gasket is elongated upwardly may vary with variation of the amount of clearance between the sealing surface and skirt, 35 the anchorage of the gasket at its lower end to the skirt is effective to prevent the gasket’s being moved up to the top of the shell. At the same time, the spring action of the skirt is availed of, as the wedging action of the vessel against 40 the elastic gasket expands or swings the lower end of the constricting part 12 outwardly a very slight distance, as illustrated in a somewhat exaggerated degree in Fig. 4. This places the skirt under tension and renders its Inherent resiliency 45 effective to apply a constantly acting inward pressure against the upper portion of the gasket in the radial direction.

It is to be observed accordingly, that when the closure is in seated position on the vessel the ₅₀ upper portion of the gasket is compressed very strongly between the constricting portion 12 of the skirt and the sealing surface of the vessel and compacted very closely upon the surfaces of those parts, which causes the gasket material 55 to mold into all of the irregularities of those surfaces and effect a very strong frictional engagement with the vessel and form a very tight hermetic seal. It is to be observed, however, that this highly compressed portion of the gasket _eo occupies only the lower part of the constricting portion 12, leaving the constricting portion and the flaring portion 11 free to exercise their inward resilient action, and as a result, the entire spring pressure of the skirt is brought to bear _es on this relatively narrow, highly compressed, upper portion of the gasket.

As a result of the combined action of these several features, the closure may be seated on the vessel with comparative ease, but when seated 70 holds its place very strongly against internal pressure and forms an absolutely air tight seal. Moreover, since the outward deflection of the constricting part 12 of the skirt is quite slight, much less than it would be if a corresponding 75 amount of gasket material were compressed be

2,339,8 tween it and the sealing surface of the vessel closely adjacent the top of the shell, the resultants of the reaction forces of the compressed elastic gasket and the resilient skirt are approximately normal to the sealing surface, viz., ap- 5 proximately in the direction indicated by arrow in Fig. 4, and hence there is no appreciable force tending to slide the closure upwardly on the vessel.

These various characteristics of this closure 10 cap are of particular utility in its use for resealing. In most packing procedures the closure will be applied in the first instance in vacuo and the resulting air pressure differential will supplement the friction action of the closure in J5 holding it in place on the vessel. After the closure is once removed, however, and it is desired to re-apply it to the vessel by hand, the pressing down of the closure on the vessel will effect some compression of air within the package, which, ₂o of course, will exercise a tendency to force the closure off, particularly if the temperature of the confined air or of the remaining contents of the package is raised, as when it has been removed from a refrigerator and then left stand- 25 ing for a while at room temperature after resealing. Moreover, upon such re-capping, it almost always occurs that there is some liquid on the sealing surface and this acts as a lubricant tending to defeat the frictional clinging action ₃₀of the closure, and also, the gasket may have become swelled somewhat from absorption of oils or acids from the contents of the vessel subsequent to the original sealing of it.

The present construction, however, effectively 35 overcomes all of these adverse factors, and even though all of them are present, the closure may be easily and quickly re-sealed on the vessel simply by pressing it downwardly thereon, and in this re-sealing operation, the closure reaches its 40 sealed or seated position with somewhat of a snap action which indicates to the operator that it is completely seated and, as a matter of fact, actually assists in the final seating movement, especially when the closure is pressed on from a 45 slightly canted position as is most conveniently done when re-applied by hand.

attribute some of the above mentioned advantages to the combined arrangement whereby the full spring action of the skirt is concen- 50 trated upon only a relatively narrow area of the elastic gasket, viz., upon only the upper end portion of the gasket which lies within the lower portion of the constricting part of the shell skirt. One of the features which contributes to this is 55 the fact that the gasket is definitely, locked in position in the shell so that its upper portion cannot be displaced to a position adjacent the top thereof, and, as a consequence, the inward reaction forces of the compressed gasket and ten- eo sioned skirt are effective upon a narrow circumferential zone of the sealing surface of the vessel in radial directions approximately perpendicular thereto.

Further advantages are attained by this con- 65 struction, in that it permits the gasket to be made of materially greater thickness than is feasible when a long gasket is used, which increased thickness of gasket particularly qualifies the closure to accommodate and function effec- 70 tively upon vessels whose sealing surfaces vary considerably from the ideal or intended contour and size.

In Fig. 5 I show a construction wherein the vessel is of slightly modified form, in that the 75

127 3 sealing surface, here designated 18, terminates at its lower end at a slight inwardly extending shoulder 18a so located that when the closure is in fully seated position this shoulder will be somewhat below the lower terminus of the constricting portion 12 of the skirt. This shoulder, which may be continuous or discontinuous circumferentially of the vessel, forms a ledge or recess under or into which some of the elastic gasket material immediately adjacent the highly compressed area may seat and thus exercise additional retentive effect upon the vessel. The closure used with this type of vessel may be the same in all particulars as that above described.

To aid in removal of the closure from the vessel, the latter may be formed with a pry-off ledge 19, of conventional form, located so that it is suitably spaced from the lower margin of the closure skirt when the latter is in seated position, to accommodate insertion of a prying implement between them whereby upward prying action may be exerted on the closure. In this fashion the closure may be removed without any deformation whatever and in condition to form a perfect re-seal in continued use.