Abstract: A tamper-evident, snap-on, screw-off closure is used with a specially shaped container neck. The neck has at least one first helical thread on an upper neck stretch portion, and a first tamper-evident structure having a first locking member. The closure has an upper skirt having at least one second helical thread mating with the first helical thread of the neck. The closure includes a second tamper-evident structure having a second locking member shaped and positioned to engage the first locking member when the closure is applied to the neck.

Abstract: A tamper-evident, snap-on, screw-off closure is used with a specially shaped container neck. The neck has double lead external threads and, below the threads, external ratchet teeth arranged in two diametrically opposed quadrants. The closure has an upper skirt having internal threads mating with the neck threads. A lower skirt is connected to the upper skirt by a plurality of frangible bridges. The lower skirt has opposed quadrants having internal ratchet teeth to mate with the neck ratchet teeth. The lower skirt has a tear tab which, when pulled, fractures the lower skirt on a vertical line. Continued pulling on the tab sequentially fractures the bridges. The tear tab constitutes an orientation means to properly locate the cap on the neck so that an axial downward push on the cap engages the internal and external threads and internal and external ratchet teeth.

Abstract: A fitment and cap therefor are integrally molded with lugs interconnecting the part. The fitment has a flange to be attached to a container and an internally threaded spout. The cap has an externally threaded skirt. The lugs are diametrically spaced and interconnect the bottom edge of the skirt and upper edge of the spout. After molding, force is applied to break the lugs and snap the skirt inside the spout, the threads slipping past each other and inter-engaging. A temper-evident band extends around the skirt and is connected thereto by frangible bridges. At diametrically spaced locations vertically projecting fingers extend down from the tamper evident band and are received in sockets on the fitment flange shaped so that the band fingers prevent unscrewing the cap without removing the tamper-evident band. A pull tab and thumb tab assist the consumer in removing the tamper evident band so that the cap may be unscrewed from the fitment.

Abstract: A thin walled container of the type used to package dairy products such as yogurt, cottage cheese and other products is provided with an out-turned serrated container lip surrounded by an outward-spaced tamper-evident band, the lower edge of which is connected to the container by plural frangible bridges. The closure has a flange having an in-turned locking bead which engages the container lip and is held in place by the tamper-evident band. To open the container, the tamper-evident band is torn away by breaking the bridges, whereupon the closure may be separated from the container lip.

Abstract: Container neck finishes produced by preforming processes such as injection or compression molding can generally be made to more accurate dimensions than blow molded finishes. Blow molded bottles conventionally have had an outward slanted area below the locking beads which merges into a horizontal shoulder on which the lower edge of the cap skirt rests, the slanted areas preventing the lower portion of the skirt from being compressed or pinched-in. As a substitute for the slanted area of blow molded bottles, the present invention provides annular rings on a preformed finish which supports the skirt against compression and a larger diameter second annular ring which functions as a shoulder on which the lower edge of the cap skirt may rest.

Abstract: A plastic cap is used on containers, particularly of the type used commercially for five-gallon bottles containing liquids such as drinking water. A bead is formed on the exterior, preferably above the elevation of the horizontal tear line conventionally used in such caps. The bead is preferably flat on the outside surface and wide in a vertical sense. The bead functions to cause the cap to engage the neck of the container more securely. It also functions to retain in place a dust cap which fits over the top of the cap. It further functions as a seal for the type of cap used in certain water dispensers. Such dispensers are used without removing the cap from the container in that the top disk is opened after the container has been installed in the dispenser. The bead seals against the inside of a sleeve incorporated in such a dispenser.

Abstract: A plastic cap for closing the neck of a conventional 5-gallon bottle or similar container is characterized by having an upper external convex bead immediately below the neck lip, a concavity below the upper bead and a lower convex bead. The cap has a top disc and a peripheral depending skirt. The skirt has an upper seal bead to engage the upper neck bead, a tensioning bead to engage the undersurface of the upper seal bead and a lower seal bead to engage the lower convex bead. Below the tensioning bead is a horizontal internal score line. Extending downwardly from the horizontal score line is a second score line curving downwardly and then in a substantially vertical stretch. A tear tab extends down from the bottom edge of the skirt. To open the bottle, the user pulls the tear tab to tear the skirt upward along the second score line, then around the horizontal score line.

Abstract: A push on cap for engaging a container neck is formed with inturned thickened flanges on its inner surface which cooperate with matching grooves in the container neck to retain the cap in place when the skirt is intact. A circumferential groove is formed in the skirt intermediate the inturned thickened flanges joined with a second groove extending to the bottom edge of the skirt. A tab projecting beyond the skirt is gripped and pulled causing the skirt to tear upward and then circumferentially thereby removing the lower thickened flange and permitting the top of the cap to be removed and reclosed. A rigid circumferential flange on the exterior of the skirt is spaced above the level of the uppermost inturned thickened flange and below the top of the cap has an angled gusset below the flange to prevent removing the cap by prying upwards with a fingernail prior to removing the tear skirt.

Abstract: A snap-on, tamper evident plastic cap for a plastic bottle neck has a skirt with upper and lower internal locking beads which lock under extenral beads on the neck. The cap is not removable so long as the skirt is intact. The lower end of the skirt, including the lower bead, may be torn off to permit the cap to be removed. To facilitate removal, the cap skirt is formed with a score line which slants upward from the lower edge of the skirt to merge with a circumferential score line which terminates near the origin of the slanted score line. A third score line extends from the terminus of the circumferential score line down to the lower edge of the skirt. Thus there is a tab (a remnant of the original skirt) between the first and third score lines which functions as a lift tab.

Abstract: 5-gallon plastic molded bottles of at least two manufacturers have neck profiles which differ slightly but have a diameter where the variation in profile is at a minimum. The cap of this invention fits at least two profiles. In each profile there is an outward-convex bead below the top lip. The interior of the skirt of the cap curves concave approximately co-extensive with such bead curvature and has plural circumferential internal annular ridges which engage the bead at about its maximum diameter. Below the ridges is an internal annular tension ring having a diameter when unstressed less than the diameter of the top neck bead at its circle of contact which engages below the maximum bead diameter and hence tends to pull the ridges down into tighter engagement with the profiles of either manufacturers' neck finish. Below the tension ring the skirt is formed with a horizontal tear line which extends about 265.degree. of the circumference of the skirt.

Abstract: A plastic cap for a container neck formed with upper and lower external locking beads has a top disk from which depends an upper outer skirt having an upper internal locking bead and a larger diameter lower skirt having a lower internal locking bead. Between the skirt sections is an external outward extending flange which is weakened by a notch cut in its outer corner. The interior of the skirt is formed with an outward extending shoulder at a lower elevation than said external outward extending flange and the lower skirt wall intersects said outward extending shoulder in a circular intersection. A circumferential line of minimum thickness extends downward-inward from said notch to said line of intersection. When the cap is seated on the neck the upper and lower beads interengage, the cap cannot be removed without evidence of tampering.

Abstract: The neck of a plastic container for motor oil or similar thin fluids is formed wiht plural, discrete, smooth external conical surfaces and further formed with shoulders below each such surface. The cap for such neck has an interior generally complementary to the exterior of the neck. Internal cap beads engage under the shoulders of the neck. At least the lowermost cap shoulder is preferably interrupted. Above each bead is an internal circumferential rib which seals against the corresponding smooth conical surface of the neck. The lower portion of the cap including the lowermost bead may be torn away, permitting the upper part of the cap, which functions as a reclosure cap, to be pried off the neck. For such purpose, the cap wall is made thin below the second locking bead and a downward-slanted scoreline extends from the thin area to the bottom edge of the cap. A tear tab extends below the bottom edge of the cap adjacent the terminals of the score line.

Abstract: A commercially available seal disc of foil or thin plastic is inserted in a temper-evident plastic bottle cap prior to its being applied to a container neck. The cap has an internal, horizontal upper locking bead as well as a lower locking bead which lock under shoulders on the neck of the container. Inward-extending lugs are formed projecting inward of the upper locking beads to augment the bead sections in retaining the seal disc inside the cap. When the cap is applied to the container neck, the seal disc adheres to the container neck. Neither the internal cap beads nor the lugs interfere with retention of the disc on the neck as the cap is removed.

Abstract: A cap of a type having a top disk with depending outer and inner skirts between which the neck of the jar fits is disclosed. The inner surface of the outer skirt and the outside of the neck have cooperating upper and lower locking beads holding the cap in place until the lower portion of the skirt is torn off by tearing along a horizontal score line and thereby removing the lower cap locking bead. The skirt is torn by pulling a tab horizontally. The tab in one form of the invention is defined by cutouts in the lower portion of the outer skirt and is offset outwardly for easy engagement by the finger of the user. In a modification there are two tabs extending in opposite directions, either of which may be pulled to tear off the lower skirt and both tabs being joined by narrow links to a central release lug. The latter is bent upward, thereby breaking the links. The lug has an additional utility in prying off the cap from the neck of the jar after the lower skirt is torn off.

Abstract: A wine or beer keg dispenser spout has a curved exterior bead terminating in an outward-downward slanted surface, then a cylindrical surface and a horizontal shoulder below the latter. A cap for the spout is of plastic having a top disk and a depending skirt which fits over and snugly engages the exterior of the spout, the lower edge of the skirt resting on the shoulder. A tab extends below the skirt at an acute angle to the bottom edge. The skirt is weakened in a score line which is an upper extension of the top edge of the tab and continues to a terminus above the bead. Pulling the tab tears the skirt along the score line to permit separation of the cap.

Abstract: A cap for a wide-mouth container has a short inner skirt and a longer outer skirt. The outer skirt has upper and lower internal locking beads which are preferably interrupted with gaps between bead sections. Above the lower locking bead is a circumferential score line. A portion of the outer skirt below the score line is cut away to form a pull tab extending parallel to the score line. The cap has a peripheral flange the underside of which slants downward-inward. The container neck is thin walled, having an internal top flange terminating in a first sealing surface which bears against the top of the inner skirt, a groove below the last-mentioned surface and a second sealing surface below the groove which also bears against the inner skirt. The neck also has upper and lower external beads each having shoulders on their lower edges under which the upper and lower internal locking beads of the cap seat. The neck curves outward in a lower shoulder immediately below the bottom edge of the skirt.