WO2003089324A1

WO2003089324A1 - A non-drip capsule for a bottle

Info

Publication number: WO2003089324A1
Application number: PCT/AU2003/000447
Authority: WO
Inventors: David Robert Burford
Original assignee: David Robert Burford
Priority date: 2002-04-18
Filing date: 2003-04-15
Publication date: 2003-10-30
Also published as: AUPS181002A0

Abstract

A non-drip capsule (16) for a bottle having a mouth (14) with an internal sidewall (14a) and the mouth being closable by a stopper (12), the capsule (16) including a cover (18) and a cap (20). The cover includes a skirt (18a) and a top portion (18b) including a peripheral edge (22) which is located inwardly of the internal sidewall (14a), and the cap (20) is attached to the top portion (18b) and includes a circular zone of weakness (26) which is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge (22), or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion. When the stopper (12) is extracted, the stopper deforms a part of the capsule remaining on the bottle to form a drip restraining curved lip and the lip being made of a malleable material such as a metal foil that will hold its shape after being deformed.

Description

A NON-DRIP CAPSULE FOR A BOTTLE

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a non-drip capsule for a bottle or other similar liquid container.

Background of the Invention

One of the problems when pouring liquid from a bottle is that there is a tendency for a small amount of liquid to be retained about the mouth of the bottle, which then runs down the outside of the bottle when the bottle is stood upright. This causes a ring of fluid to form on the surface on which the bottle is then placed. This is particularly a problem with bottles containing wine.

The present invention seeks to eliminate or at least alleviate the problem of dripping liquid by providing a non-drip capsule for use on bottles.

Capsules are currently used on wine bottles or the like for a variety of reasons, such as to hide the stopper (such as a cork stopper) from view, to provide a mechanism for evidencing tampering of the bottle's contents and to display information and advertising. The present invention provides another use for the capsule.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention provides a non-drip capsule for a bottle, the bottle having a mouth with an internal sidewall, the mouth being closable by a stopper, the capsule including a cover and a cap, wherein: - the cover includes a skirt portion and a top portion, the top portion including a peripheral edge which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall; and the cap is attached to at least a part of the top portion and includes a zone of weakness which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge, or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion.

The present invention also provides a non-drip capsule for a bottle, the bottle having a mouth with an internal sidewall, the mouth being closable by a stopper, the capsule including a cover and a cap, wherein: the cover includes a skirt portion and a top portion, the top portion including a peπpheral edge which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall; and the cap is attached to at least a part of the top portion and includes a zone of weakness which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge, or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion; whereby, when the stopper is extracted from the mouth of the bottle, the stopper deforms at least a part of the capsule remaining on the bottle to form a drip restraining lip, at least a part of the drip restraining lip being made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed.

The present invention further provides a non-drip capsule for a bottle, the bottle having a mouth with an internal sidewall, the mouth being closable by a stopper, the capsule including a cover and a cap, wherein: the cover includes a skirt portion and a top portion, the top portion including a peripheral edge which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall; and the cap is attached to at least a part of the top portion and includes a zone of weakness which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge, or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion; whereby, when the stopper is extracted from the bottle, detaching an inner cap portion of the cap from the capsule and leaving at the edge an outer cap portion overlapping and attached to the top portion, a drip restraining lip is formed by the outer cap portion and the overlapped part of the top portion, either the entire cap portion, or at least the outer cap portion, being made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed.

In a preferred form, the bottle is of a traditional type, such as a wine bottle, and has a circular shaped mouth. It will be appreciated that, in this preferred form, the peripheral edge of the top portion of the cover is about the 'radially' innermost extent of the top portion, and the cap is itself circular also having a circular peripheral edge. In this respect, although subsequent references in this specification to 'inner', 'inwardly', 'outer' or 'outwardly' will generally be accompanied by the adjective 'radially', it is to be appreciated that the broadest form of the invention is not to exclude configurations that arise from the mouth of the bottle having a shape other than circular. For example, if a bottle were to have a square shaped mouth, a non-drip capsule could be suitably configured in accordance with the invention, and continued reference to, for example, 'radially' inwardly is to be read to permit use in this context.

In this preferred form of the invention, it will thus be appreciated that the zone of weakness in the cap is then located, in use, either at the peripheral edge of, or radially outwardly of, the edge of the top portion of the cover and also radially inwardly of the internal sidewall of the mouth of the bottle. The zone of weakness defines an inner cap portion radially inwardly thereof and an outer cap portion radially outwardly thereof.

Furthermore, the zone of weakness is preferably located, in use, about one to two millimetres radially outwardly of the peripheral edge of the top portion. Additionally, the peripheral edge of the top portion preferably extends beyond the internal sidewall of the mouth of the bottle by an amount between 1 and 5 millimetres, depending upon the diameter of the bottle mouth.

The zone of weakness may be formed by a series of perforations, small apertures or cuts formed in the cap, a thinning of the thickness of the cap, or by a variation in amount of adhesive applied to the cap in order to affix it to the cover. Alternatively, a groove causing a weakness may be formed in the cap, such as by using a laser. The zone of weakness is preferably formed as an annulus about a centre point of the stopper.

The cap is preferably joined to the cover in a manner so that when (for example, a corkscrew) the stopper is extracted from the bottle by applying a stopper removal device through the cap, the inner cap portion detaches from the capsule due to the presence of the zone of weakness, (leaving a pouring aperture that is, in this form of the invention, circular) and the outer cap portion is retained attached to, and overlapping, the top portion of the cover.

It will thus be appreciated that, due to the configuration of the capsule, when the stopper is extracted from the mouth of the bottle, the stopper deforms at least a part of the remaining portions of the capsule (that at least partly overlie the stopper before it is extracted) such that a drip restraining lip is formed. The drip restraining lip is preferably curved in cross section and may adopt an open c- shape. The drip restraining lip is preferably continuous so that there is no point at which a drip can escape from the mouth of the bottle.

In this respect, the outer cap portion preferably serves to maintain the configuration of the drip restraining lip after the stopper has been extracted. In a preferred form, some part of the drip restraining lip is preferably made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed. It thus should be flexible but not resilient. Preferably, it will be the cap that will be made of this material, or at least the outer portion of the cap, being that portion outside the zone of weakness that remains on the drip restraining lip after extraction of the stopper. Preferably, this material will be a thin metal material, such as a suitable aluminium or tin foil, that maintains the general c-shape of the drip restraining lip.

In a particularly preferred form of the invention, the cover is made from a suitable plastics material such as polyvinylchloride (PVC) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or any other material commonly used in the manufacture of traditional capsules. Indeed, it is preferred for the material of the cover to be of a thickness in the order of 60 micron to 150 micron (namely, the thickness of traditional capsules) to assist with maintaining a relatively thin peripheral edge of the top portion of the cover.

However, as will be apparent from the above description, if the cap is not made of a malleable material, at least a portion of the edge of the cover will need to be of a malleable material.

Finally, it is also be advantageous for the cover to have an underside surface, that is the surface that is adjacent the external sidewall of the bottle and the stopper, that is glossy and/or made from a material (or coated with a material) which is liquid repellent in nature. Such a glossy surface or repellent material discourages the formation of droplets thereon and encourages liquid from the bottle to flow back into the bottle following a pouring action, further assisting the non-drip function of the present invention.

Description of the Drawings

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a capsule in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, shown with the capsule fitted to the neck of a bottle;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the embodiment of Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view schematically illustrating part removal of the stopper from a bottle fitted with a capsule in accordance with the embodiment of Figure 1 ; and Figure 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating the capsule shown in Figure 3 after the stopper has been fully removed from the bottle.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Figure 1 shows the upper neck 10 of a bottle having the shape of a traditional wine bottle. A stopper 12, in the form of a traditional cork stopper, is fitted within the mouth 14 of the bottle. Attached to the upper neck 10 of the bottle is a capsule 16 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The capsule 16 is constructed from two components, namely a cover 18 and a cap 20. The cover 18 includes a skirt portion 18a and a top portion 18b. The skirt portion 18a fits snugly in use against the upper neck 10 of the bottle. The top portion 18b of the cover 18 is located over at least a part of the stopper 12 and, as best illustrated in Figure 2, includes a peripheral edge 22. The peripheral edge 22 is located radially inwardly of the inner sidewall 14a of the mouth 14. The peripheral edge 22 defines an aperture 24 in the cover 18 which is substantially circular.

The cap 20 is secured to the top portion 18b of the cover 18 in a manner which will be described in more detail subsequently. The cap 20 is generally circular and includes a zone of weakness 26 which, in this embodiment, is formed as an annulus located radially outwardly of the peripheral edge 22 of the top portion 18b of the cover 18, although in other forms the zone of weakness 26 may be located at or near the peripheral edge 22. This annulus is also located radially inwardly of the inner sidewall 14a of the mouth 14 of the bottle. The zone of weakness 26 defines an inner cap portion 28 and an outer portion 30 of the cap 20.

As shown in Figure 1 , the inner cap portion 28 of the capsule 16 may include at least one (but usually four) aperture 32. The aperture 32 is provided to allow the stopper 12 to breathe. The cap 20 is joined to the top portion 18b of the cover 18 in a manner so that when the stopper 12 is extracted from the bottle, the inner cap portion 28 is disconnected from the top portion 18b and is held on the stopper 12. The outer cap portion 30 is retained on the cover 18.

Figure 3 schematically illustrates the removal of the stopper 12 from the mouth 14 of the bottle using a conventional corkscrew. As is apparent from this figure, the point of the corkscrew is pushed into the stopper 12 directly through the cap 20 of the capsule 16. There is no need to remove the capsule 16 (or any part of the capsule) prior to the removal of the stopper 12.

The stopper 12 illustrated in Figure 3 is made from a material (such as natural cork) that is resiliently deformed in order to fit the stopper 12 into the mouth 14 of the bottle. Accordingly, as is apparent from Figure 3, the stopper 12 expands radially outwardly as it is extracted from the mouth 14 of the bottle. When a corkscrew or the like is used to extract the stopper 12, the upward extraction force applied to the stopper 12 will cause the zone of weakness 26 in the cap 20 to fracture so that the inner cap portion 28 is disconnected from the outer cap portion 30, resulting in the formation of a pouring aperture.

In addition, that part of the top portion 18b of the cover 18 which is located directly above the stopper 12 will be lifted upwardly in the direction of the extraction force as a consequence of its contact with the periphery of the stopper 12. As the stopper 12 expands during extraction it will further deform the top portion 18b of the cover 18 in an outwardly direction. This lifting and deformation of the top portion 18b results in the formation of a drip restraining lip 40 which is best illustrated in Figure 4.

The drip restraining lip 40 extends inwardly of and about the entire mouth 14 of the bottle, is curved in cross section and adopts an open C-shape. It is configured so as to encourage any droplets of liquid formed as a result of a pouring action to flow back into the mouth 14 of the bottle, as opposed to flowing down the outer sidewall of the bottle. As also illustrated in Figure 4, the outer cap portion 30 is retained on the top portion 18b of the cover 18 when the stopper 12 is removed. The outer cap portion 30 assists to retain the drip restraining lip 40 in the required orientation. It will be appreciated that when the cover 18 is made from plastic materials such as PVC or PET, the top portion 18b of the capsule 18 will have a tendency to return to its original configuration once the extraction force has been removed.

Given the resiliently deformable nature of such plastics material, it is desirable for the cap 20 to be made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed, such as a metal foil or material. Consequently, the outer cap portion 30 will hold the top portion 18b in the required orientation to maintain the drip restraining lip 40 once the extraction force has been removed.

It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that capsules used in the wine industry are generally heat shrunk onto the upper neck of a bottle. Consequently, a capsule 16 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, is preferably designed so that it can be heat shrunk onto a bottle. It is however advantageous for the cover 18 to have an underside surface, that is the surface that is adjacent the external sidewall of the bottle and the stopper, to be glossy. Such a glossy finish discourages the formation of droplets thereon and therefore encourages liquid from the bottle to flow back into the bottle following a pouring action.

The cap 20 is typically joined to the top portion 18b of the cover 18 using an adhesive.

The zone of weakness 26 may, for example, be achieved by forming a series of perforations, small apertures or cuts in the required area in the cap 20. Alternatively, there may be a thinning of the thickness of the cap 20 or a variation in the amount of adhesive applied to the cap 20 in order to affix it to the cover 18. As will be appreciated, the zone of weakness 26 is preferably formed as an annulus about the centre point of the stopper 12 so as to ensure that the resulting drip restraining lip 40 is continuous.

It is envisaged that the aperture 24 in the top portion 18b of the cover 18 will be substantially circular and that the diameter of the aperture 24 would be 1 to 5 mm smaller than the diameter of the mouth 14 of the bottle. The zone of weakness 26 is preferably located somewhere in the annular area that is radially outwardly of the peripheral edge 22 yet radially inwardly of the inner side wall of the mouth 14 of the bottle. The zone of weakness is preferably located approximately one to two millimetres radially outwardly of the peripheral edge 22 of the top portion 18b of the cover 18.

From the above it will be appreciated that a capsule 16 in accordance with the present invention offers two distinct advantages. Firstly, in order to remove the stopper it is not necessary to use a knife or other implement to remove an upper part of the capsule before stopper extraction can occur. Instead, the point of the corkscrew can be applied directly through (and preferably centrally of) the cap 20 and into the stopper 12. Thus, the process of opening a bottle is reduced from a two step process to a single step process. Furthermore, the process is made safer because a sharp object such as a knife is not required to remove the capsule, such as would often happen at the point designated in Figure 4 by the reference numeral 50.

The embodiment also offers the advantage that a drip restraining lip 40 is formed during removal of the stopper 12 and thus the likelihood of any drips of fluid escaping down the outside of the bottle after a pouring action is significantly reduced. The embodiment has been described by way of example only and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention are envisaged.

Claims

CLAI S:-

1. A non-drip capsule for a bottle, the bottle having a mouth with an internal sidewall, the mouth being closable by a stopper, the capsule including a cover and a cap, wherein: the cover includes a skirt portion and a top portion, the top portion including a peripheral edge which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall; and the cap is attached to at least a part of the top portion and includes a zone of weakness which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge, or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion.

2. A non-drip capsule according to claim 1 , wherein, when the stopper is extracted from the mouth of the bottle, the stopper deforms at least a part of the capsule remaining on the bottle to form a drip restraining lip.

3. A non-drip capsule according to claim 2, wherein the drip restraining lip is curved in cross-section, having an open c-shape, and is continuous.

4. A non-drip capsule according to claim 2, wherein at least a part of the drip restraining lip is made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed.

5. A non-drip capsule according to claim 2, wherein, when the stopper is extracted from the bottle, detaching an inner cap portion from the capsule and leaving at the edge an outer cap portion overlapping and attached to the top portion, the drip restraining lip is formed by the outer cap portion and the overlapped part of the top portion.

6. A non-drip capsule according to claim 5, wherein either the entire cap portion, or at least the outer cap portion, is made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed.

7. A non-drip capsule according to claim 1 wherein the zone of weakness is located, in use, about 1 to 2mm outwardly of the peripheral edge of the top portion.

8. A non-drip capsule according to claim 1 wherein the peripheral edge of the top portion extends beyond the internal sidewall of the mouth by between 1 and 5mm.

9. A non-drip capsule for a bottle, the bottle having a mouth with an internal sidewall, the mouth being closable by a stopper, the capsule including a cover and a cap, wherein: the cover includes a skirt portion and a top portion, the top portion including a peripheral edge which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall; and the cap is attached to at least a part of the top portion and includes a zone of weakness which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge, or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion; whereby, when the stopper is extracted from the mouth of the bottle, the stopper deforms at least a part of the capsule remaining on the bottle to form a drip restraining lip, at least a part of the drip restraining lip being made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed. -

10. A non-drip capsule for a bottle, the bottle having a mouth with an internal sidewall, the mouth being closable by a stopper, the capsule including a cover and a cap, wherein: the cover includes a skirt portion and a top portion, the top portion including a peripheral edge which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall; and the cap is attached to at least a part of the top portion and includes a zone of weakness which, when the capsule is applied to the bottle, is located inwardly of the internal sidewall and is either at the peripheral edge, or outwardly of the peripheral edge, of the top portion; whereby, when the stopper is extracted from the bottle, detaching an inner cap portion from the capsule and leaving at the edge an outer cap portion overlapping and attached to the top portion, a drip restraining lip is formed by the outer cap portion and the overlapped part of the top portion, either the entire cap portion, or at least the outer cap portion, being made of a malleable material that will hold its shape after being deformed.

11. A non-drip capsule according to claim 1 substantially as herein described in relation to the accompanying drawings.

12. A non-drip capsule according to claim 9 substantially as herein described in relation to the accompany drawings.

13. A non-drip capsule according to claim 10 substantially as herein described in relation to the accompanying drawings.