Abstract: A container including a plurality of side walls, a top, a handle, a bumper, and a substantially planar label surface. The top has a neck and is joined to a top portion of the side walls. The handle is formed in a region adjacent the top and extends between two adjacent side walls within the profile of the container. The bumper extends around the periphery of the container across each of the side walls. The bumper projects outward from each of the side walls a distance. The substantially planar label surface is located on one of the side walls proximal the bumper and extends upwardly higher than a lower end portion of the handle. The distance is sufficient to prevent contact of the label surface against a flat surface abutting against the container. The bumper may be offset downwardly to extend around the label surface thereby enlarge the label surface. The container may include a plurality of corner portions interconnecting adjacent side walls.

Abstract: A container including a neck and an opening, in combination with a tamper-evidencing closure including a top, a depending annular skirt and a tamper-evidencing band frangibly connected to the annular skirt. The container includes a locking surface on the neck spaced from the opening. The tamper-evidencing band includes an inwardly turned retaining rim that extends at least partially upwardly. The retaining rim has a free edge for engagement with the locking surface as the closure is removed from the neck. The retaining rim includes a locking surface engaging structure, most preferably provided by a plurality of outwardly directed flutes spaced circumferentially thereon and a second securing structure located on the retaining rim between the flutes. Drain passageways are provided in the rim to enable draining and/or evaporation of trapped liquid.

Abstract: A closure for a container having a foil or membrane sealed opening. The closure includes a cap, a spout and a stem. The stem includes a downwardly extending piercing structure adapted for piercing the foil or membrane of the container upon rotation of the spout relative to the cap.

Abstract: A bottle cap including a top, a skirt, a locking bead, a tear tab, a line of weakness and a gusset. The top has a perimeter. The skirt depends from the perimeter and has a bottom edge. The locking bead radially extends from the skirt intermediate the top and the bottom edge. The tear tab extends downward from the bottom edge. The line of weakness extends along the skirt upward from the bottom edge and onto the top. The gusset extends from the locking bead into the skirt. The cap allows a user to remove the cap from a bottle in a facile manner.

Abstract: A tamper-evident, snap-on, screw-off closure is used with a specially shaped container neck. One neck has double lead external threads and, below the threads, a conical wall having external ratchet teeth. The closure has an upper skirt having internal threads mating with the neck threads. A conical lower skirt is connected to the upper skirt by a plurality of frangible bridges. The lower skirt has internal ratchet teeth to mate with the neck ratchet teeth. The cap skirt threads are double pitch and slightly over 360° in length. When the cap is applied to the neck it snaps on in two stages. 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. Another neck has a neck stretch with multiple neck threads and a locking wall below the neck stretch with a plurality of external teeth.

Abstract: A closure for a container having a foil or membrane sealed opening. The closure includes a cap, a spout and a stem. The stem includes a downwardly extending piercing structure adapted for piercing the foil or membrane of the container upon rotation of the spout relative to the cap. The cap includes a cap top, a cap skirt depending from the cap top, an open sleeve and a stem guide. The open sleeve has an inwardly extending thread adapted to detachably engage the container. The open sleeve extends upwardly from the cap top. The stem guide extends along an internal surface of the sleeve. The spout rotatably engages the sleeve and includes a spout top having a central aperture, an outer spout skirt and an inner skirt. The outer skirt depends from the spout top radially outward of the sleeve and rotatably engages the sleeve. The inner spout skirt depends from the spout top radially within the sleeve.

Abstract: A closure for a container having a foil or membrane sealed opening. The closure includes a cap, a spout and a stem. The stem includes a downwardly extending piercing structure adapted for piercing the foil or membrane of the container upon rotation of the spout relative to the cap. The cap includes a cap top, a cap skirt depending from the cap top, an open sleeve and a stem guide. The open sleeve has an inwardly extending thread adapted to detachably engage the container. The open sleeve extends upwardly from the cap top. The stem guide extends along an internal surface of the sleeve. The spout rotatably engages the sleeve and includes a spout top having a central aperture, an outer spout skirt and an inner skirt. The outer skirt depends from the spout top radially outward of the sleeve and rotatably engages the sleeve. The inner spout skirt depends from the spout top radially within the sleeve.

Abstract: A closure for a container neck having a crown, a reduced diameter portion, a downward facing shoulder, and an enlarged diameter portion. The crown defines an opening and an outwardly extending locking bead. The closure includes a cap, a skirt, a well, a frangible membrane, a pull ring, and a retainer. The skirt depends from the top and is adapted to fit around the crown and the enlarged diameter portion of the container neck. The well includes an upper side wall depending from the top, an inwardly directed shoulder located adjacent a bottom of the upper wall, and a lower side wall depending from the inwardly directed shoulder. The lower side wall has an interior surface and the lower side wall terminating at an open bottom. The frangible membrane in the well closes off the well and includes a line of weakness frangibly connecting the frangible membrane to the lower side wall adjacent the inwardly directed shoulder. The pull ring is attached to an upper surface of the frangible membrane.

Abstract: The neck of a container has a smooth seal surface engaged by the inner skirt or plug of a cap. Such surface is free of trim and parting line flaws which are characteristic of blow-molded jars because the surface is formed in such a way that the seal surface is not in contact with mold parting lines and further the trim (excess plastic) of the neck is located away from the sealing surface. In one form of the disclosure, above the sealing surface the neck wall slants outward and then bends upward-inward in a short, tapered stretch about 18 degree to the horizontal which engages the underside of the cap disk to compress against the disk or a liner or foil. Other forms of seal surfaces are disclosed In another form of the invention, above the seal surface the neck extends outward and then upward and then inward in a flange which is trimmed along a line which has a circumference no less than the circumference of the seal surface.

Abstract: A thin-walled multi-label container generally includes side walls, a bottom, a top having a neck, a handle, a first label surface and a bumper. Corner portions interconnect adjacent side edge portions of respective side walls. A curved base portion interconnects an adjacent bottom edge portion of a respective side wall with an adjacent edge portion of the bottom. A curved crown portion interconnects an adjacent top edge portion of a respective side wall with an adjacent edge portion of the top. The handle is formed in a region extending along one of the curved corner portions within the profile of the container and provides an aperture for receiving the fingers of a user. The first label surface is located on one of the side walls. The bumper extends around the periphery of the container across each of the upstanding side walls and projects outward from each of the side walls a distance sufficient to prevent contact of the first label surface against any flat surface abutting against the container.

Abstract: A machine for washing bottles has a conveyor which advances intermittently from station to station. The conveyor has a carriage extending transversely thereof formed to receive at least one inverted bottle. Full cone spray nozzles located above and below the bottles as they pass along the conveyor spray warmed detergent solution on the exteriors of the bottles at each station. High pressure or solid stream jet nozzles at each stage project a jet of water from below into the inverted open mouth of each bottle at the stage to thoroughly clean the interior of each bottle. To counterbalance the forces of the jets below, which tend to lift the bottles off the conveyor, a jet of fluid from above impacts the inverted bottom of each bottle.

Abstract: A bottle cap (10) having a top panel (12) and a downwardly depending skirt (14). Skirt (14) includes an angled upper portion (20) and a generally cylindrical lower portion (22) with an exterior bead (24) thereon. Angled upper skirt portion (20) extends from a perimeter bead (23) down to a locking bead (34), which allows upper skirt (20) to transfer an application force from perimeter bead (23) radially to locking bead (34) in order to push the locking bead down around the upper crown (42) of a bottle neck (40).

Abstract: A container including a neck and an opening, in combination with a tamper-evidencing closure including a top, a depending annular skirt and a tamper-evidencing band frangibly connected to the annular skirt. The container includes a first securing structure on the neck spaced from the opening. The tamper-evidencing band includes an inwardly turned retaining rim that extends at least partially upwardly. The retaining rim has a free edge for engagement with the locking surface as the closure is removed from the neck. The retaining rim includes a plurality of outwardly directed flutes spaced circumferentially thereon and a second securing structure located on the retaining rim between the flutes.

Abstract: A fitment for use as a pour spout for a paper carton or flexible bag for liquids and powders has a flange which may be welded around a hole in the carton or bag. A spout projecting outward from the flange is provided with a removable membrane integral with the interior of the spout. Preferably the membrane is concave. A horizontally disposed pull ring is attached to the membrane by a connector so that pulling the ring removes the membrane by fracturing the tear line at the juncture of the outer edge of the membrane and the projection. A cap snaps over the spout and may be removed by unscrewing the complementary threads on cap and spout. Optionally, a tamper-evidencing band frangibly connected to the lower edge of the cap skirt engages the exterior of the spout so that the cap cannot be removed without breaking the frangible connection. Various means for detachably securing the fitment to a spud during delivery of the fitment from a chute to the interior of a carton are disclosed.

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, a conical wall having external ratchet teeth. The closure has an upper skirt having internal threads mating with the neck threads. A conical lower skirt is connected to the upper skirt by a plurality of frangible bridges. The lower skirt has internal ratchet teeth to mate with the neck ratchet teeth. The cap skirt threads are double pitch and slightly over 360° in length. When the cap is applied to the neck it snaps on in two stages. 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.

Abstract: A machine for washing bottles has a conveyor which advances intermittently from station to station. The conveyor has a carriage extending transversely thereof formed to receive at least one inverted bottle. Full cone spray nozzles located above and below the bottles as they pass along the conveyor spray warmed detergent solution on the exteriors of the bottles at each station. High pressure or solid stream jet nozzles at each stage project a jet of water from below into the inverted open mouth of each bottle at the stage to thoroughly clean the interior of each bottle. To counterbalance the forces of the jets below, which tend to lift the bottles off the conveyor, a jet of fluid from above impacts the inverted bottom of each bottle.

Abstract: A bottle cap (10) having a top panel (12) and a downwardly depending skirt (14). Skirt (14) includes an angled upper portion (20) and a generally cylindrical lower portion (22) with an exterior bead (24) thereon. Angled upper skirt portion (20) extends from a perimeter bead (23) down to a locking bead (34), which allows upper skirt (20) to transfer an application force from perimeter bead (23) radially to locking bead (34) in order to push the locking bead down around the upper crown (42) of a bottle neck (40).

Abstract: A fitment for use as a pour spout for a paper carton or flexible bag for liquids and powders has a flange which may be welded around a hole in the carton or bag. A spout projecting outward from the flange is provided with a removable membrane integral with the interior of the spout. Preferably the membrane is concave. A horizontally disposed pull ring is attached to the membrane by a connector so that pulling the ring removes the membrane by fracturing the tear line at the juncture of the outer edge of the membrane and the projection. A cap snaps over the spout and may be removed by unscrewing the complementary threads on cap and spout. Optionally, a tamper-evidencing band frangibly connected to the lower edge of the cap skirt engages the exterior of the spout so that the cap cannot be removed without breaking the frangible connection. Various means for detachably securing the fitment to a spud during delivery of the fitment from a chute to the interior of a carton are disclosed.

Abstract: A blow molded container has a cylindrical neck portion with novel seven circumferentially spaced continuous spiral thread configurations on its exterior to immediately receive and engage an improved tamper indicating flexible cap comprising a top with an annular depending wall on its peripheral edge and seven circumferentially spaced continuous spiral thread configurations on the inner surface of the annular depending wall. The novel constructions enable the tamper indicating flexible cap to immediately engage the lead-in ends of the seven circumferentially spaced thread patterns on the exterior of the neck of the container without the heretofore necessary rotation of the prior art caps in order to engage the single spiral thread configuration on the neck of the container.