Package with tamper-evident feature

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9914576-B2
Application number	US-201514854478-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2015
Priority date	Sep 18, 2014
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

A container closure in accordance with the present disclosure is coupled to a tamper-evident tear strip. The container closure is adapted to be mated with a container to cover an interior region formed in the container and to provide a package.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A package comprising a container formed to include an interior product-storage region and a top aperture opening into the interior product-storage region, and a container label including a closure coupled to the container to close the top aperture and a tamper-evident removable tear strip having a container-anchor portion bonded to a top wall of the container and a finger-pull tab, unbonded to the top wall of the container and coupled to the container-anchor portion, wherein the closure is joined to the container-anchor portion of a tamper-evident tear strip by a frangible connector extending along an undulated boundary line, wherein the frangible connector comprises a series of tear fields that are arranged to lie in spaced-apart relation to one another along the undulated boundary line and a C-shaped boundary aperture is formed in the container label and is arranged to extend along the undulated boundary line and lie between a pair of adjacent tear fields wherein the C-shaped boundary aperture is formed in the container label between each pair of consecutive tear fields and along the undulated boundary line to provide means for fracturing each tear field included in the frangible connector to cause separation of the tear strip from the closure along the undulated boundary line without unwanted tearing of the tamper-evident tear strip or the closure during pulling movement of the finger-pull tab included in the tamper-evident tear strip in a direction generally along the undulated boundary line or generally toward the closure at an acute angle to the undulated boundary line or generally away from the closure at an acute angle to the undulated boundary line, wherein the closure comprises a cover, a bonding flange arranged to surround the cover, and an unbonded handgrip portion appended to the bonding flange at a tear-strip end of the closure, the bonding flange is arranged to mate with a ring-shaped label-bonding zone provided on a top wall of the container to support the cover in an aperture-closing position above the top aperture, and the closure further comprises means for bonding the bonding flange of the closure and the container-anchor portion of the tamper-evident tear strip to the top wall of the container without bonding the unbonded handgrip portion of the closure to the top wall of the container.

2. The package of claim 1 , wherein several C-shaped boundary apertures are formed in the container label to lie in end-to-end relation to one another and each pair of adjacent C-shaped boundary apertures is separated by one of the tear fields.

3. The package of claim 2 , wherein a portion of the container-anchor portion of the tamper-evident tear strip that borders a first of the C-shaped boundary apertures faces toward the closure and has a convex shape and an edge portion of the closure that borders the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures faces toward the container-anchor portion of the tamper-evident tear strip and has a concave shape.

4. The package of claim 3 , wherein the edge portions are arranged to lie in uniformly spaced-apart relation along the lengths thereof to one another to define the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures therebetween.

5. The package of claim 2 , wherein the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures comprises, in series, a curved first end segment, a straight middle segment, a curved middle segment, and a negatively sloping straight second end segment.

6. The package of claim 5 , wherein a second of the C-shaped boundary apertures comprises, in series, a curved first end segment, a straight middle segment, a curved middle segment, and a negatively sloping straight second end segment and the curved first end segment of the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures is arranged to lie in spaced-apart relation to the negatively sloping straight second end segment of the second of the C-shaped boundary apertures to define one of the tear fields therebetween.

7. The package of claim 5 , wherein each of the segments is formed in the container label to have a uniform width extending laterally between the edge portion of the container-anchor portion and the edge portion of the closure.

8. The package of claim 2 , wherein each C-shaped boundary aperture has a first terminal end located on the undulated boundary line and an opposite second terminal end located on the undulated boundary line and arranged to lie between the finger-pull tab and the first terminal end, a first of the tear fields is positioned to lie between the first terminal end of a first of the C-shaped boundary apertures and the second terminal end of an adjacent second of the C-shaped boundary apertures, and the first terminal end of the first C-shaped boundary aperture provides a tear initiation point for the first of the tear fields during movement of the finger-pull tab relative to the closure and toward the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures to tear the tear fields and separate the container-anchor portion of the tamper-evident tear strip from the closure.

9. The package of claim 8 , wherein the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures comprises a straight middle segment arranged to lie between the first terminal end thereof and the second terminal end thereof, a curved first end segment arranged to interconnect the straight middle segment and the first terminal end of the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures, a negatively sloping straight second end segment arranged to terminate at the second terminal end of the first of the C-shaped boundary apertures, and a curved middle segment arranged to interconnect the straight middle segment and the negatively sloping straight second end segment.

10. The package of claim 9 , wherein the adjacent second of the C-shaped boundary apertures comprises a straight middle segment arranged to lie between the first terminal end thereof and the second terminal end thereof, a curved first end segment arranged to interconnect the straight middle segment and the first terminal end of the adjacent second of the C-shaped boundary apertures, a negatively sloping straight second end segment arranged to terminate at the second terminal end of the adjacent second of the C-shaped boundary apertures, and a curved middle segment arranged to interconnect the straight middle segment and the negatively sloping straight second end segment of the adjacent second of the C-shaped boundary apertures.

11. The package of claim 10 , wherein each of the straight middle segments are aligned in substantially collinear relation to a straight reference line, the first terminal end of each of the C-shaped boundary apertures is arranged to lie at a first distance (d 1 ) from the straight reference line and to intersect a first-terminal-point reference line that is arranged to lie in spaced-apart parallel relation to the straight reference line, and the second terminal end of each of the C-shaped boundary apertures is arranged to lie at a second distance (D) from the straight reference line and to intersect a second-terminal-point reference line that is arranged to lie in a spaced-apart parallel relation to the straight reference line, wherein the second distance (D 1 ) is greater than the first distance (d 1 ).

12. The package of claim 1 , wherein the unbonded handgrip portion is arranged to interconnect the bonding flange of the closure and tear fields of the frangible connector to allow the unbonded handgrip portion to be exposed and gripped by a consumer that wishes to peel back the closure in a peal direction that extends away from the undulated boundary line after the tamper-evident tear strip has been peeled away in a tear strip peel direction that extends alo

Assignees

• Berry Plastics Corp

Inventors

• Konicke James F

Classifications

• B65D77/2096 Primary

  Adhesive means · CPC title

• B65D2401/15

  Tearable part of the closure (B65D2401/60 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B65D77/204

  the cover having an unsealed portion for initiating removal (B65D77/2036 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B65D2577/2091

  in cover · CPC title

• B65D2101/0023

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic