Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
~3~Sl
A CHILD RESISTANT CLOSURE CAP FOR
NECKED CANS OR CONTAINERS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a child resistant closure
cap for selectively gaining ~ccess to a container or a can and
more particularly to a child resistant overcap for a necked can
or container configuration.
As one can ascertain, it is a well known problem that
serious health damage can occur to young children who have a
tendency to play with various containers found in the typical
household.
As is acknowledged, such containers by of example may
contain pharmaceutical preparations and in the case of aerosol
containers may dispense sprays of insecticides, paints and
other chemicals which can severely injure the child. The
problem i-s serious and has been recognized in legislation (The
Poison Prevention Packaging Act). This Act was enacted in
1970. The Act recognizes that there is a direct need to
protect young children from such injuries and to therefore'
place a duty the upon a manufacturer of noxious substances to
include in the design of a container a child resistant or child
proof closure.
As indicated, the prior art is aware of such problems
and reference is made to U.S. Patent No. 4,315,576 issued on
February 16, 1982 and entitled CHILD RESISTANT CLOSURE CAP
APPARATUS EMPLOYING FULCRUM ACTION by Joseph E. Murphy et al
~3~29Sl
and assiqned to the assignee herein, namely, Gilbert Plastics,
Inc. of New Brunswick, New Jersey. In that patent, there is a
relatively detailed description of prior art safety caps which
are essentially child proof and which consist of various
locking mechanisms to prevent the inadvertent opening of
containers by a child.
As indicated, it is clear that the prior art devices
are quite diverse and operate on various principals such as
selective rotation and alignment or the exertion of
predetermined forces at particular points. It is further clear
that certain of the devices of the prior art, especially those
relating to aerosol containers, are extremely complicated and
difficult to manufacture due to their composite structure such
as containing inner and outer shell mechanisms. Recently,
there is available a series of cans or containers which are
necked devices and as such include a peripheral ridge or recess
which is positioned below a top spout portion. These cans
typically are fabricated from aluminum and are adapted to
contain pharmaceuticals, insecticides and various other
deleterious substances. Hence, in view of such cans it also
desirable to provide a child resistant closure cap for the
containers as well.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to
provide an improved child resistant closure cap which cap is
economical to manufacture and which is adapted to be used with
necked cans or containers. The cap to be described is
' .'
13~2~3Sl
particularly adaptable to be emplaced and employed with these
containers although other containers such as bottles and so on
can also be used with the ~losure structure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODI ENT
A child resistant closure cap apparatus for covering
a container, said container of the type having a peripheral
recess, with said recess positioned below an extending top
portion associated with a substance removal end of said
container, comprising a cup-shaped member having a closed top
surface and an opened bottom, said cup shaped member having a
first partial inner peripheral flange near said opened bottom
and having a circumferential opening said first flange adapted
to coact with said peripheral recess in said container, with a
second partial inner peripheral flange located above said first
flange and having a diametrically opposed opening with said
second flange adapted to be positioned on said top portion when
said first flange is coacting with said recess.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
Fig. 1 is a front plan view of a closure cap
partially in cross section illustrating the affixation of the
cap to a necked container.
Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the cap according to
this invention.
~ ~ ='``''`'',`~~``',.
. ~
~3~Z~
Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of the cap shown in
Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a view taken through line 4-4 of Fig. 3.
Fig. 5 is a view taken through line 5-5 of Fig. 3.
Fig. 6 is a bottom plan view depicting an ~lternate
peripheral flange configuration.
Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view of a cap employing
an alternate arrangement for a top peripheral flange means.
Fig~ 8 is a bottom plan view of a cap according to
this invention and useful in explaining operation.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a typical example
of a can or container lO to which a closure cap 20 according to
this invention is secured. The container asse~bly includes a
longitudinal cylindrical body portion 11 which may be
fabricated from a metal such as aluminum. The top portion 12
of the can is arcuate in shape and has sloping contoured
surfaces which terminate in an upper portion 14 designated as a
pouring spout. It is also indicated that the upper portion 14
may contain an aerosol valve or other suitable mechanism to
allow the contents of the can 10 to be ejected by manipulation
of the valve. Such valves as well as pressurized fluids which
can be accommodated by such containers as 10 are well known in
the art.
9~1
In any even~, as one can ascertain from Fig. 1, there
is a peripheral recess 15 which essentially is fabricated in
the can. The recess 15 is a peripheral recess and extends
about the outer periphery of the can separating the cylindrical
portion 11 from the top dome section 12. The section 12 shown
in Fig. 1 is by way of representation only and various other
configurations can be employed as well. The closure cap 20 is
fa~ricated from a suitable flexible plastic such as a high
density polyethylene plastic and contains at predetermined
locations about the inner periphery two partial inner
peripheral flanges. Each of the inner flanges depicted by
reference numerals 18 and 19 is a partial circular
configuration having a predetermined circumferential opening
at opposite ends. The opening of the bottom flange 19 and the
top flange 18 are positioned 180- apart. The opening is a
circumferential opening and occupies a given angle. As will be
explained, once the cap is emplaced on the can, a typical
pulling action will not enable a child to apply the necessary
force to pull the cap off the can in a vertical direction.
This is especially true of a child.
As will be explained, in order to remove the cap, one
has to exert a pressure or force directly above one of the
circumferèntial openings to thereby dislodge the cap from the
can. As one can see from Fig. 1, one of the semicircular
flanges as 19 is secured within or coacts with the recess 15.
The other semicircular flange as 18 rests or rides upon the
13~
container surface 12 and acts to coact with this surface in a
manner to be described.
Referring to Fig. 2, there is shown a top plan view
of the cap 20. Essentially, the cap includes indicia indicated
by reference numeral 21 indicating to a consumer where to apply
the force in order to dislodge the cap when emplaced on the
container. The cap surface may further include a simple
diagram showing the cap removal procedure as for example
showing a cap held in one's hand and the use of the thumb to
push the cap off the container.
Referring to Fig. 3, there is shown a cross-sectional
view of the cap 20. The cap 20 is a cup-shaped member having a
closed top and an opened bottom and is relatively conventional
in appearance. As one can see from Fig. 3, there are two
partial circular flanges which are positioned one above the
other near the bottom of the cap. one flange designated as 19
is adapted to coact with the recess 15 formed in the container
or can structure 10. The other peripheral flange 18 is also a
partial circular structure in configuration and is adapted to
coact with the top portion 12 of the can. It is indicated and
understood that while a particular type of can or container 10
is depicted in Fig. 1, various other configurations can be
employed as well. The main consideration for the can or
container is that it has a recess as 15 which is coextensive
with a top portion of similar or lesser diameter.
~3~JZ9~
As one can see from Fig. 4, the peripheral flange 18
is partially circular in configuration and extends about the
periphery of the cap 20 but has an opening 30 which is
circumferential and occupies between 30 to 90-.
5In a similar manner, referring to Fig. 5, the
peripheral or circular flange 19 also has an opening 35 which
again is between 30 to 90. As one can ascertain by looking
at Figs. 4 and 5, the openings are diametrically opposed or are
separated 180 one from the other. In this manner and again
lOreferring to Fig. 1, when the cap is emplaced upon the
containér or can 10, the peripheral ridge or flange 19 rides in
the recess lS, while the ridge or flange 18 abuts against the
side surfaces of the top portion 12. As one can therefore
ascertain, in this manner, if one pushes down upon the cap, as
15for example the vertical direction, the partial circular ridge
18 abuts up against the top portion of the can 12 which
essentially prevents one from unlocking the peripheral ridge 19
from the recess 15.
In any event, as one can ascertain, if one pushes the
20top surface of the cap that underlies the opening 30, one will
essentially distort the cap configuration due to the fact that
there is no flange portion in the area 30. This causes the cap
to flex thus distorting the bottom flange which rides in the
recess 15. In this manner, the flange 19 dislodges from the
25recess 15 and thereby enables the cap 20 to be removed from the
container 10. In any event, various tests have been performed
~3UZ~
which show that it is extremely difficult for a child to
perform the necessary manipulations to dislodge the cap as
described above.
It is further extremely difficult for a child to
impart the necessary forces to enable removal or to disengage
the flange 19 from the peripheral recess lS as located about
the periphery of the can or container lO.
In any event, the necessary force to accomplish
removal is not easily provided by a young child, especially by
a child between the ages of a few months to five years or more.
It is, of course, understood that the protection desired in
regard to children of this age is of paramount importance as
older children, for example, will tend to exercise greater
caution and are more likely to be aware of the consequences in
lS the unauthorized use of such containers. The cap structure as
described above is extremely simple to implement from a
manufacturing point of view as essentially the cap can be
easily molded in a single procedure by typical injection or
other plastic molding processes. The cross-sectional
configurations of the circular flanges as 18 and lg are
semicircular or rounded in cross section.
In any event, they can be triangular or of any other
suitable configuration depending on the shape of the recess 15
as implemented in the container 10. While flanges shown above
are completely peripheral flanges, it is of course understood
as shown in Figure 6 that the flanges do not have to be
~3~Z~
continuou~ flanges. Hence, flanges 18 and 19 both may consist
of spaced partial projecting elements as 20 and 21 which are
spaced about the periphery and separated by a suitable distance
in order to provide a good seal. These flanges or extending
projections form a peripheral flange as flanges 18 and lg and
essentially provide the same modes of operation for the above-
described mechanism. As shown in Fig. 6, the partial
circumferential opening is also provided by means of the space
projections as 20 and 21 which are sometimes referred to as
undercuts. In this manner, the peripheral opening is provided
by not including such projections in the area designated as 25.
It should be immediately apparent to one sXilled in the art by
referring to Fig. 6 that the peripheral flanges can constitute
a series of peripheral undercuts such as shown in Fig. 6 which
are suitable spaced to provide necessary rigidity. In this
manner both flanges 18 and 19 can be implemented by utilizing
such undercuts with the undercuts forming a peripheral flange
with the partial circumferential openings of each of- the
flanges as 18 and 19 being diametrically opposed.
Referring to Fig. 7, there is shown a cross sectional
view of a cap employing still another alternate embodiment. In
Fig. 7 the bottom flange which would be similar to flange 19
again consists of a series of segmented undercuts as 41 each of
which projects to form a suitable peripheral flange having a
circumferential opening as for example that opening 25 of
Fig. 6. In any event, the top flange as flange 18 may consist
:1 3~?29Sl
of a series of vertical ribs as 44, 43 and 42 which are spaced
about the inner periphery of the cap and as shown.
These ribs would be positioned at for example three
or more locations shown in Fig. 8 to provide the necessary
support. Each of the vertical ribs may be a partial rib as for
example rib 43 or 44 or may extend from a given location above
the flange 41 to the top of the can as for example shown by rib
42 of FigO 7. Essentially, the ribs will operate to coact with
the top surface of the can when the necessary pushing operation~
is performed as for example shown in Fig. 2.
This structure which consists of the vertical ribs as
shown in Fig. 7 also constitutes a peripheral flange which is
not a continuous flange but essentially may consist solely of
three ribs spaced for example as shown in Fig. 8. The three
ribs designated in Fig. 8 as 50, Sl and 52 operate and are
positioned to form an opening as 55. This opening again is
diametrically opposed to the opening 56 which is formed in the
bottom flange and which opening coacts with the peripheral
recess lS of a typical can.
Thus as one can ascertain, the peripheral flanges as
defined in this specification can be continuous or intermediate
as long as the proper circumferential openings which may be
between 30 to 90~ are maintained. As one can ascertain from
Figs. 7 and 3, the top peripheral flange may be formed by
vertically extending ribs located at the inner periphery of the
cap which ribs essentially will perform the same operation as
~ ~ = ` ~c`
11
indicated. Thus, it should be apparent to one ~X~lled in the
art that the main feature of the present invention is to
provide means which coact both with the reces~ of the can and
which means have a circumferential opening when the means are
emplaced within the peripheral recess 15 of the can.
The top peripheral flange may be segmented or
continuous or may consist essentially of suitably positioned
vertical ribs to enable one to thereby apply a suitable force
to the cap which force will enable the cap to flex and cause
the circumferential opening associated with the bottom flange
as 19 to flex the cap in such a manner that the cap completely
dislodges from the peripheral recess 15. It should be apparent
to those skilled in the art that there are many alternative
embodiments which will constitute suitable means to enable one
to provide the features and structure of this invention.
It is further understood that the cap 20 cannot
easily be dislodged or removed by an upward pulling action as
such an upward pulling action will not free the flange 19 from
the recess 15. Hence it is again repeated that in order to
remove the cap, one must exer~ a pressure on the cap underneath
the cutout portion associated with the flange 18. In this
manner, the cap is distorted whereby the underlying flange 19
is substantially removed about its periphery from the recess 15
enabling an adult or one capable of exerting a suitable force
to remove the cap from the can as per the instructions.
~3~Z~
12
As indicated above, the cap is particularly adaptable
to be employed with aluminum containers which have a recess 15
coextensive with a top dome shaped portion as 12. In any
event, it is also apparent that any particular container could
be accommodated as long as it has a recess as 15 and a suitable
top surface which can abut with or coact with the circular
flange 19.
It is therefore understood that based on the above
description, various alternate embodiments will be apparent to
those skilled in the art and all such alterations as well as
additional uses are deemed to be included within the scope and
spirit of the claims as appended hereto.
