Container With Tethered Closure
Hand-held container-and-closure systems wherein the container and closure are attached to each other with a flexible tether in the form of a loop, and mounting and demounting the closure from the container requires the container and/or closure to slide along the tether.
The invention is in the field of resealable containers with friction fit closures for consumer products. Of special interest are smaller, hand-held, portable containers such as lipstick compacts, travel-sized personal care containers, pill bottles, ampoules, flasks, vials, tubes, etc.
BACKGROUNDFor many resealable containers there is a possibility of losing or misplacing the closure when it is separated from the container. This is especially true of smaller portable containers that are used out of the home. For example, when using a sunscreen stick product during winter activities, the chance of dropping the cap or container is significantly higher due to wearing gloves. This problem is sometimes addressed by attaching the closure to the container. One common means of attachment is a tether in the form of a plastic strip that attaches the cap to the container. Examples of these include U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,245,870 and 9,796,516. Generally, the plastic strip is somewhat flexible along its length, but significantly rigid along its width. With this type tether, it is not always easy to prevent the cap and tether from interfering with dispensing of the product or other operation of the container. For example, the plastic strip tends to want to bend back toward the portion of the container that was just uncovered. This makes it difficult to dispense product without getting the product on the tether and cap.
Cosmetic or personal care articles that are implemented as wearable accessories are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 10,342,315 discloses a lipstick tube that can be worn as a pendant attached to a necklace. A coupling system is used so that the lipstick tube may be readily connected and disconnected from the necklace. U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,712 discloses a portable spray device that comprises a pressurized container and a cap. The cap is attached to a necklace or bracelet for suspending the spray device. With either of these wearable accessories, the container must be separated from the cap in order to use the product housed therein, and the potential to lose or misplace one part of the cosmetic or personal care article remains.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTIONA main object of the invention is to provide a portable container-and-closure system wherein the closure and container remain connected to each other in a way that does not interfere with dispensing of product or other use of the system.
SUMMARYThe present invention comprise a container-and-closure system wherein the container and closure are attached to each other with a flexible tether in the form of a loop. In some embodiments, the tether loop is open, and therefore, has two free ends. In other embodiments, the tether is a closed, continuous loop, and therefore, has no ends. In all embodiments, the container and closure are supported by the tether, and maintained in proximity to each other, but the closure and tether do not interfere with dispensing of product or other use of the system.
Throughout the specification, the term comprising means that a collection of objects may not be limited to those explicitly recited.
The invention concerns a container-and-closure system that comprises a container for housing a cosmetic or personal care product, and a closure that cooperates with the container to protect the product from the ambient environment. The container and closure are supported on a tether, and never separate from the tether. Mounting and demounting the closure from the container requires the container and/or closure to slide along the tether. Various embodiments of the invention will now be described.
First EmbodimentA first embodiment of a container-and-closure system is shown in
The closure (2) comprises a closed proximal end (2a), an opened distal end (2b) and one or more lateral walls (2c). The closure is able to receive the spray pump (1e) into itself, and the opened distal end of the closure is able to engage the collar (1f) in a manner that retains the closure on the collar. In this first embodiment, this engagement does not involve rotation of the closure relative to the container. For example, the engagement of the closure and collar may be a friction fit or snap fit engagement that is achieved through translation of the closure relative to the container, but not rotation. At least two closure channels (2g, 2h) are located on an exterior surface of the closure, such as on the one or more lateral walls (2c) of the closure. Preferably, the number of closure channels is equal to the number of container channels (1g, 1h) on the container (1). Preferably, the closure channels are equally spaced around the closure. Preferably, the closure channels are located at the same height on the lateral walls of the closure. The closure channels are able to receive the tether (3). The closure may be made of any materials commonly used, such as glass, plastic, and wood.
In this first embodiment, the tether (3) is employed as an open-ended loop that has first and second end portions (3g, 3h). The first end portion (3g) of the tether passes through the closure channel (2g) and then through the container channel (1g). The second end portion (3h) of the tether passes through the closure channel (2h) and then through the container channel (1h). This is best illustrated in
The tether (3) may be made of various types of natural or man-made materials. These include, but are not limited to, single or multi-filament, such as string, thread, yarn, twine, and rope. Also, plastic fibers such as nylon or polypropylene may be used. Chain may also be useful for the tether. Combinations of any of these may also be used. In general, some or all of the tether will be flexible in all directions, preferably with very little resistance to bending. This will generally be achieved by choice of material and a sufficiently small diameter of the tether. In some embodiments, the first and second end portions (3g, 3h) of the tether may be rigid to the point of offering significant resistance to bending. This could be achieved by using a different, stiffer material for the first and second end portions, and or by making the end portions thicker. In any case, the tether should be sufficiently strong to withstand breakage in normal and intended use of the container-and-closure system. As shown in
At a minimum, the tether (3) must be long enough to allow the closure (2) to completely come off of the container (1). Preferably, the tether is considerably longer than this. In the configuration shown in
Referring to
The closure (6) closes off the opened end of the container (5). The closure comprises a lateral wall (6c) that supports complementary screw threads (not shown) on its interior surface to engage the screw threads (5b) of the container, in the conventional manner. Therefore, unlike the first embodiment, this embodiment does involve rotation of the closure relative to the container. At least two closure channels (6g, 6h) are located on an exterior surface of the closure, such as on the lateral wall (6c) of the closure. Preferably, the number of closure channels is equal to the number of container channels (5g, 5h) on the container (5). Preferably, the closure channels are equally spaced around the closure. Preferably, the closure channels are located at the same height of on the wall of the closure. The closure channels rotate with the closure. These channels may be in-molded with the closure. Alternatively, as shown in
In this second embodiment, the tether (7) is formed as an open-ended loop that has first and second end portions (7g, 7h). The first end portion (7g) of the tether passes through the closure channel (6g) and then through the container channel (5g). The second end portion (7h) of the tether passes through the closure channel (6h) and then through the container channel (5h). The first and second end portions of the tether are unable to back out of their respective container channels. This may be accomplished by providing the first and second end portions of the tether with enlarged elements that do not easily back out of the container channels. For example, after the tether is passed through the container channel, a knot may be tied near the end of the tether. Alternatively, a bead (7i) that cannot pass through container channel may be secured to the end of the tether. Alternatively, the end of the tether may be provided with a mechanism that is able to pass though the container channel, but not back out, such as a toggle or barbed fitment.
The tether (7) may be made of various types of natural or man-made materials. These include, but are not limited to, single or multi-filament, such as string, thread, yarn, twine, and rope. Also, plastic fibers such as nylon or polypropylene may be used. Chain may also be useful for the tether. Combinations of any of these may also be used. In this embodiment, it is preferred if the first and second end portions (7g, 7h) of the tether are rigid, while the rest of the tether may be flexible in all directions. The rigid end portions may be achieved by using a different, stiffer material for the first and second end portions, and or by making the end portions thicker. The rigid end portions will ensure that when the closure (6) is screwed onto or off of the container (5), the first circular band (5f) will rotate with the closure, which prevents the tether from getting tangled on itself.
As shown in
At a minimum, the tether must be long enough to allow the closure (6) to completely come off of the container (5). Preferably, the tether is considerably longer than this. In the configuration shown in
The third embodiment, shown in
The fourth embodiment, shown in
The fifth embodiment, shown in
A variation on the fifth embodiment is shown in
Another variation on the fifth embodiment is shown in
Claims
1. A container-and-closure system that comprises:
- a container for housing a cosmetic or personal care product;
- a closure that cooperates with the container; wherein: the container and closure are supported on a tether, and mounting and demounting the closure from the container requires the container and/or closure to slide along the tether.
2. The container-and-closure system of claim 1 wherein the tether passes through one or more container channels that are located on an exterior surface of the container.
3. The container-and-closure system of claim 2 wherein the tether passes through two or more closure channels that are located on an exterior surface of the closure.
4. The container-and-closure system of claim 3 wherein the container has first and second channels that are equally spaced around the container, and the closure has first and second channels that are equally spaced around the closure.
5. The container-and-closure system of claim 1 wherein some or all of the tether is flexible in all directions.
6. The container-and-closure system of claim 4 wherein the tether is an open-ended loop that has first and second end portions, wherein the first end portion of the tether passes through the first closure channel and the first container channel; and the second end portion of the tether passes through the second closure channel and the second container channel, and the first and second end portions of the tether are unable to back out of their respective container channels.
7. The container-and-closure system of claim 6 wherein:
- the container has a neck with screw threads, and the first and second container channels are located on the neck and are able to rotate around the neck;
- the closure has a lateral wall that supports screw threads that are able to engage the screw threads of the container, and the first and second closure channels are located on the lateral wall of the closure; and
- the first and second end portions of the tether are sufficiently rigid so that when the screw threads of the closure engage the screw threads of the container, the first and second container channels to rotate with the closure.
8. The container-and-closure system of claim 5 wherein first and second end portions of the tether are fixedly attached to the closure, so that the closure cannot slide on the tether.
9. The container-and-closure system of claim 3 wherein the tether is formed as a closed loop that passes through the one or more container channels and through the two or more closure channels.
10. The container-and-closure system of claim 1 wherein the tether passes into a closure channel on an exterior surface of the closure, emerges from the closure channel on an interior surface of the closure, then passes into a container channel on an interior surface of the container, and emerges from the container channel on an exterior surface of the container.
11. The container-and-closure system of claim 3 wherein the container channels extend at least 90% of the length of the container and the closure channels extend at least 90% of the length of the closure.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 3, 2019
Publication Date: Jun 3, 2021
Inventors: Francis Corbellini (Thiais), Herve F. Bouix (New York, NY)
Application Number: 16/701,253