WO1998034843A1

WO1998034843A1 - Container with a snap bottom

Info

Publication number: WO1998034843A1
Application number: PCT/DE1998/000337
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bertold Bast
Original assignee: Schmalbach Lubeca Ag
Priority date: 1997-02-06
Filing date: 1998-02-06
Publication date: 1998-08-13
Also published as: EP0958182A1; TR199901886T2; EP0958182B1; DE59810400D1; DE19704522A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a two piece beverage can made substantially of sheet metal or plastic with a bottom area (3) drawn-in to the inner side of the container, the diameter (12) of said bottom area being evidently smaller than the diameter (7) of the container (1) and which is surrounded by a ring-shaped area (2) snapping away axially from the inner side (10) of the container, comprising also a separate disc-shaped bottom part (15) with an outer diameter (16) adapted to the inner diameter (8) of the ring area (2) in order to fix the bottom part (15) to the ring area (2). The additional bottom disc ('false bottom part') is separately produced. It consists of a metal, plastic material, cardboard or any composite material, the bottom of the beverage can being decorated.

Description

Container with a snap bottom

The invention relates to a container, in particular a two-part beverage can, made of sheet metal, plastic or the like, with a bottom region drawn into the interior of the container, the diameter of which is significantly smaller than the diameter of the container and which is surrounded by an annular ring region projecting axially away from the interior of the container. which normally serves as a footprint for the container. Containers of this type, particularly in the form of a two-part beverage can, are widely used. In this case, the container body and the bottom are mostly formed in one piece, while the lid is manufactured separately and, after the container has been filled, is used to seal it tightly and often also pressure-tight. The lid part usually has an easy-to-use device for exposing a pouring opening. It is also common practice to provide the outer surface of the can body for labeling and decorative purposes.

Particularly in the case of containers which are intended for packaged goods packed under pressure, it is customary to provide a dome-shaped base part in the base area which is surrounded by the annular contact area (cf. WO-A 83/02577). It is also known to use the space under the floor created by the drawn-in or arched floor area for further purposes, for example for means for cooling the filling material (cf. DE-A 93 15 683). A highly flexible elastic membrane that is glued to the bottom edge can be found in WO 96/24539 (Kohorn).

It is an object of the invention to develop a container of the type mentioned so that its usability, in particular for advertising and promotional purposes, is significantly improved. This object is solved with claim 1 or 12 or 13.

The bottom of the container is shaped in such a way that it gives the second disk-shaped bottom part a reliable hold when it is snap-fitted into its position of use under the retracted bottom area. The disc-shaped bottom part appears like a bottom, but can consist of plastic, metal or cardboard material or of composite material.

The false bottom part can remain in place after the container has been emptied, or can be easily removed, for example, using a small handle. The invention offers significant advantages. It can be assumed that the containers are usually arranged close together in box-shaped or box-shaped support devices for the purpose of shipping or offering at sales stands. Customers usually look at the lid side of the container, which is essentially characterized by the opening mechanism. This means that the lid usually does not offer the manufacturer or distributor the option of affixing markings, decorations or other equipment used for promotion. The circumferential side of the container body is usually used for this purpose, which, however, remains hidden from the view in the transport box or the box or is only visible through windows in the box or the box. The design of the container according to the invention makes it possible to pack the container with the lid down into the transport boxes or cartons, so that the bottom side is freely accessible upwards. On the one hand, this has the advantage that the cover surface which has the opening device is better protected against damage and contamination. Above all, however, in the design according to the invention, the exposed bottom side can now be used in a variety of ways for the purposes of labeling, decoration, equipment or promotion.

It is particularly advantageous that the additional bottom disk ("false bottom part") appearing as the bottom is a separately manufactured part, so that it can be made from a material that is particularly suitable for the intended purposes. Metal, plastic, cardboard or composite materials of any kind can be used for this. Another major advantage is that the separately manufactured false bottom part can only be brought into its position of use under the retracted bottom area after the container has been filled and closed, and in a particularly simple manner when the attachment is merely retracted into one of the retracted portions Groove surrounding the bottom area or behind a bead or behind a recess of the bottom that widens conically to the inside of the container. It is therefore no longer necessary to prepare a large number of containers with corresponding information relating to the Olympics on the circumferential surface of the container body in the event of a special event, for example the Olympics, although it is rarely possible to adequately estimate how many of the containers in this way decorated or printed containers are actually needed. With the container according to the invention, uniformly produced containers can be provided with one or the other type of individualized floor in the shortest possible time. It is even possible with little effort, in the case of containers if required or in need, the false bottom part against new false bottom parts with different motifs or texts or decoration exchange (§ 3 UWG situations, the cans no longer have to be destroyed, only the floors with the court-prohibited advertising need to be replaced).

The snap-in and take-out of the base plate can be simplified considerably by applying considerably lower axial forces or without the additional base plate being bulged with radial forces if the edge area in a narrow ring strip is more flexible than the remaining area (claim 6.15 ). This greater flexibility can be achieved in several ways, e.g. by radial slitting or by the provision of spaced teeth, the slits and the teeth each having a depth which corresponds to approximately half the difference between the outer diameter of the inner wall - which has to be snapped over - and the outer diameter of the disk. Usually the diameter of the inner wall is roughly also the diameter of the contact ring on which the box with the ring area projecting axially outwards (below) can stand on a flat surface.

If tooth-shaped segments are used, which can lie close together, it is possible to put a thin thread or a loop around one of the teeth, so that pulling on the thread loop 30 can make it easier to detach the base plate by snapping back.

If the width of the ring strip is chosen to be slightly smaller than the previously specified dimension, then no incisions or strip segments will be visible from the outside, they will be covered by the ring area which is slightly inclined radially inwards. If no teeth and no circumferentially distributed and radially directed incisions are used, then a variant consists in making the base plate thinner in terms of the material thickness in the edge region, so that the higher elasticity or flexibility, particularly in the edge region, is not visible from the outside.

For promotional purposes, it is also advantageous that the consumer can easily detach the false bottom part, for example to collect false bottom parts with different motifs and texts.

Another advantage is that the false floors can be printed more easily and decoratively or can be provided with decorations and texts in another way. Due to the flat shape of the pane, complicated decoration and printing processes can also be used, even those that use several Need printing. Holographic printing processes are also suitable. These prints also have a much better and clearer effect on the flat or only slightly curved false floor area.

In addition, a considerable simplification is achieved in the manufacture of the cans, in particular in the printing thereof, since it is now only necessary to produce standard containers or cans.

Finally, after it has been removed from the floor after the container has been opened, the disk-shaped false bottom part can also be used to temporarily cover the exposed pouring opening.

It can also be advantageous to design the false bottom part with two walls and with an approximately lenticular cross section. This can be useful for reasons of stability. However, it is also possible to use the resulting cavity for other known purposes, for example for hygienically accommodating a tablet which releases CO2 or flavors and which can be added to the contents of the container after the container has been opened.

The invention also proposes a method for marking, decorating, equipping or the like of a container, in particular a two-part beverage can, which has a base region drawn in towards the interior of the container of smaller diameter than the container and a surrounding ring-shaped uprising region projecting axially away from the interior of the container , whereby one first creates a false bottom part as a carrier for the marking, decoration, equipment, disc-shaped false bottom part and arranges it - preferably after filling and closing the container - under the bottom area and with its edge with the annular contact area - preferably snap-in - in Connects.

The base plate can snap into the base with particularly little force if the edge area is greatly increased in flexibility in the form of a strip or its stiffness is reduced compared to the remaining inner area. Placing the base plate on the ring area creates the prerequisite that the high flexibility of the edge area results in a yielding of this area due to a low pressure and that the plate can be easily snapped into the base in terms of production technology. It also makes it easier to remove the base plate if the edge area has greater flexibility than the inside area. The invention is explained and supplemented below with the aid of schematic drawings using several exemplary embodiments.

Figure 1 shows a section of a container according to an example of the invention in a sectional plane containing the container axis.

Figure 2,

Figure 3 shows in the same representation as Figure 1 comparable containers, which differ in the configuration of the bottom.

FIG. 4 illustrates a container in the embodiment according to FIG. 3 with a false bottom part inserted into its use position.

Figure 5 shows a modified representation similar to Figure 4

Embodiment of the container according to the invention.

Figure 6 illustrates a false bottom part before insertion into the

Use position in side view. F Fiigguurr 77 shows a modified embodiment of a false bottom part in one

Sectional view, again before insertion into the

Position of use.

Figure 8a,

Figure 8b are two bottom disks (false bottom parts 15) shown in supervision, in the peripheral edge area in a strip a higher elasticity or

Have flexibility. FIG. 9 illustrates in section a section of the bottom edge area of the

Container, as already shown in FIG. 4, only with an indication of the size of the more elastic edge region 15a of the base plate 15. FIG. 10 illustrates the attachment of a thread loop 30 to one of the

Teeth 15c in the ring strip area of the base plate 15. FIG. 11 illustrates a three-dimensional representation of an inserted one

Bottom disc 15 at the bottom of the container 1, in the still small

Areas of the tooth-shaped ring strip on the edge of the base plate 15 can be seen within the ring area 2.

A conventional beverage can is in two parts and consists of a can body connected in one piece to the bottom and a lid, not shown, which has a generally known tear-open device for exposing a pouring opening. Such beverage cans are usually made of metal.

In the figures, the same can areas and the same parts are identified by the same reference numerals. The beverage can 1 according to the figures has a cylindrical fuselage wall 1a, which at the bottom merges into an annular region 2 projecting axially away from the container interior 10. Its radially outer wall 4 is tapered in the shape of a truncated cone and ends in an annular contact surface 4a. The ring region 2 is delimited on the inside by a wall region 5 pointing towards the container axis 9, which merges into a curved bottom region 3 drawn in towards the container interior 10.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the drawn-in floor area 3 is covered to the outside by a false floor part 15. According to FIGS. 6 or 8a, 8b, this consists of a circular disk which can be made of metal, plastic, cardboard or composite material of any kind. The disc has a certain rigidity, so that it can be brought into its use position under the floor area according to FIG. 4 in a snap.

The certain stiffness is such a stiffness that either the entire disc has an elasticity that allows it to be slightly radially compressed in order to lead it over the ring region 2 of the base and snap it under it, i.e. to fix it in the axial direction, or to In a narrow, annular edge region, as is shown in FIGS. 8a, 8b, the pane has increased flexibility compared to the remaining inner region of the false bottom part (the bottom disk 15). The increased flexibility is achieved by an equidistant slitting in the radial direction, which allows circumferential, approximately rectangular segments to be created, which are mutually flexible in the axial direction and thus allow the disc 15 with little axial force or low axial pressure behind the

Snap ring area 2 over, with the circumferentially oriented strip area giving way slightly and springing back just as easily for fixing. A toothed area of teeth and recesses 15c, 15b is shown in FIG. 8b with the same effect, which leaves somewhat densely scattered segments on the circumference, which have greater flexibility than a completely circumferential, non-slotted and non-toothed area of the base plate 15. Another - Not shown graphically - variant is to reduce the thickness of the base plate in the annular edge area, for example to half or a third of the thickness of the interior, so that this creates increased flexibility.

The stripe width in which the flexibility is greatly increased is indicated by "dd" in FIG. 9 and results in FIG. 8b from the difference of the outer Diameter d2 and the inner diameter d1 of the base plate 15, half of which. The outer diameter d2 is adapted to the diameter 12 according to FIG. 2, which the inner wall 5 of the ring area 2 has. The inner diameter d1 is roughly adapted to the diameter 8 of FIG. 1, which corresponds to the inner diameter of the inner wall, which is smaller in the case of a conically inclined contact ring according to FIG. 3 than the diameter 12 of FIG. 2. The diameter of the contact ring 4a is usually in correspond approximately to the diameter 8 of FIG. 1.

For the snap-in insertion of the false bottom part 15, the boundary wall 5 of the ring area 2 facing the container axis 9 can also be designed in a special way.

According to FIG. 1, an annular groove 6, which is open to the container axis 9 and into which the edge 15a of the false bottom part 15 can snap into place, is formed in the boundary wall 5. According to Figure 2, the wall 5 has an annular bead or a rib 11, behind which the edge 15a of the false bottom part can snap.

According to FIG. 3, the boundary wall 5 of the ring part 2 is of a slightly frustoconical shape, the inner diameter increasing in the direction of the interior 10 of the container, that is to say an acute angle to the axis 9 of the container, which is negative (counterclockwise).

However, the false bottom part 15 can also be permanently attached and / or even sealed with its peripheral edge 15a to the wall 5 facing the container axis 9, for example with the aid of an adhesive. However, a snap-like and thus also easily detachable attachment of the snap base part 15 is preferred.

From Figures 1 and 2 it can be seen that the diameter 12 of the retracted bottom area is significantly smaller than the diameter of the container body 1a.

The false bottom part has a diameter 16 or d2, which is larger than the inner diameter 8 of the annular contact surface 4a. The size ratio is such that, depending on the material and the rigidity of the false bottom part, a secure fit is ensured in the snapped-in position, while on the other hand the curvature of the false bottom part is preferably as small as possible in the use position. The dimensional relationships can also be such that there is a clear curvature of the false bottom part towards the container interior 10 or away from it in direction 17, as can be seen in the false bottom part 15 according to FIG. 5, the radius of curvature of the false bottom part being smaller than that of the retracted bottom region 3 is.

In order to facilitate the releasing of the false bottom part 15, it can be provided at a peripheral point with a handle 23 which ends close to the peripheral edge 15a.

For special purposes, the false bottom part can also be designed with two walls, as shown in FIG. 7.

Even before insertion or as a result of the snap-in insertion into the bottom of the container, the two wall regions 19 and 20 can bulge away from one another, as is shown in FIG. 7 for the false bottom part 18. As previously described, the dummy bottom part is inserted with its edge region 18a in the same manner as the dummy bottom part 15, by being compressed in the main axial direction, so that the peripheral edge 18a snaps into the edge region 2 of the bottom.

The outwardly sealed chamber 21 between the two wall parts 19 and 20 can be used to accommodate an additive to be introduced into the contents of the container after it has been opened.

With a tooth-shaped or slotted ring edge region 15a, 15b, 15c according to FIGS. 8a, 8b, the removal of the “snap-in bottom part” 15 can be facilitated by a thread loop 30, which is placed around at least one tooth, so that the thread 30 according to FIG Figure 10, the false floor 15 can be separated without the use of additional tools. Without a thread 30, a variant works in which one or two of the teeth have broken out or are missing. Here, a knife or a screwdriver can be used to reach under the base plate 15 in order to snap it out of the base.

FIG. 11 illustrates in a three-dimensional representation an additional base plate 15 fastened to the floor with a tooth-shaped ring edge configuration according to FIG. 8b. There are slight remaining openings that can be seen from the Recesses 15b originate from FIG. 8b and are only narrow in nature. The more precisely the diameter d1 is adapted to the inside diameter 8 of the ring area 2, the less the teeth can be seen in the edge area of the disk 15.

From the figures it can be seen that the false bottom part is a separately manufactured part, the outer surface of which in the position of use can be easily decorated or treated with any printing or coating method. It can also be seen from the figures that the false bottom part can advantageously be introduced after the container has been filled and closed and can even be exchanged retrospectively for a differently decorated bottom part.

After attaching the false bottom part, the containers are put together in groups, packed tightly into the transport boxes or boxes provided for this purpose, the containers being arranged with their cover side down, so that the false bottom parts point upwards and therefore in the transport box or after its opening in the box is also exposed for a quick look.

Claims

Expectations:

1. Container (1), in particular two-part beverage can essentially made of sheet metal or plastic, with a bottom region (3) drawn into the interior of the container, the

Diameter (12) is significantly smaller than the diameter (7) of the container (1) and is surrounded by an annular ring region (2) projecting axially away from the container interior (10), as well as with a separate, disc-shaped base part (15) an outer diameter (16, d2) adapted to the inner diameter (8) of the ring region (2) around the base part

(15) on the ring area (2).

2. Container (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that a to the container axis (9) facing inner wall region (5) of the ring region (2) is designed so that the disc-shaped bottom part (15) in it

Use position in front of the floor area (3) can be snapped in.

3. Container (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the disc-shaped bottom part (15) consists of plastic, metal, cardboard or a composite material, in particular is designed as a stiffer disc to the extent that it can be curved elastically and snap-in the protruding ring area to be pinched.

4. Container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the disc-shaped bottom part (15) as a carrier for

Information and / or promotional elements.

5. Container (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that (a) the disc-shaped base part (15) in its position of use is substantially flat, in particular slightly curved; or (b) the disk-shaped base part (15) in its position of use is curved toward the interior of the container (10) or away from it, preferably with a radius of curvature that deviates from the retracted base region (3).

6. Container according to one of the preceding claims, in which the edge region (15a, 15b, 15c) of the additional base plate (15) is designed to be substantially more flexible than the inner region, in particular in a ring strip (dd), the width of which is approximately half the difference between corresponds to the diameter (8) of the inner wall area (5) and the outer diameter (d2, 16) of the disk (15).

7. Container (1) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the wall region (13) of the ring region (2) pointing towards the container axis (9) is essentially conical with the inside diameter decreasing away from the container interior (10).

8. Container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the wall region (5) of the ring region (2) facing the container axis (9) has an annular groove (6) receiving the edge (15a) of the clamping or clamping base part (15) ) or a corresponding inner bead (11).

9. Container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the edge of the bottom part (15) on the

Container axis (9) facing wall area (5) of the ring area (2) is kept sealing and / or permanent.

10. Container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the disc-shaped base part is designed as a cross-section approximately lenticular double wall part (18) (Figure 7).

11. Container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a handle, in particular a grip tab, is provided near the edge of the disc-shaped base part to facilitate removal of the base part from one position.

12. A method for marking, decorating or equipping a container, in particular a two-part beverage can (1), which has a bottom region (3) drawn in towards the container interior (10) of smaller diameter than the container and surrounding it, essentially axially directed away from the container interior annular

Uprising area (2), characterized in that a disc-shaped base part (15) designed as a carrier for the marking, decoration, equipment or the like is manufactured separately and - preferably after filling and closing the container - is arranged above the base region (3) of the container and is connected with its edge (15a, 15b, 15c) to the annular contact area - preferably in a snap-like manner.

13. A method for decorating, marking or equipping a two-part box with in particular a stretched body part (1) and a retracted part

Floor area (3), in which a printed or decorated disk (15) is attached above the floor (3), in particular is clamped circumferentially by applying axial force.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the disc-shaped bottom part (15) as a stiffer disc is arched elastically and clamped in the bottom edge in a snap.

15. The method according to claim 14, in which lobes or tooth regions are provided in the outer edge region which are substantially more flexible than that

Central area of the base plate (15) and with slight axial pressure over an axially projecting and radially slightly retracted ring area (2) on the floor to snap in behind the radially circumferential, retracted edge area.