Sealing and locking thread system

• US 4,325,487 A
• Filed: 06/02/1980
• Issued: 04/20/1982
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/1980
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Owens-Illinois Closure, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sidney M. Libit
• Inventors: Libit, Sidney M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hall, George T.
• Application Number:
  US06/155,406
• Time in Patent Office: 687 Days
• Field of Search: 215/330, 215/341, 215/344, 215/DIG. 1, 215/215, 215/216
• US Class Current: 215/330
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 41/0428 formed by a collar, flange, rib or the like contacting the top rim or the top edges or the external surface of a container neck B65D41/0421 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B65D 41/0471 with means for positioning the cap on the container, or for limiting the movement of the cap, or for preventing accidental loosening of the cap
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 215/01 Fins

Abstract

A screw-threaded closure cap to provide sealing of the contents of a container for fluent material upon closing and opening thereof and to provide a wedging torque-controlled securement of the cap to the container. The cap is provided with an internal thread of a pitch essentially identical to the pitch on the neck of the container and cooperates therewith. A continuous helical rib is positioned adjacent the internal cap thread and has a width greater than the depth of the cap thread and the thread on the neck of the container. The helical rib is of resilient material having a good memory. The cap thread is formed as a truncated cone to provide a camming surface cooperative with the helical rib in locking the cap to the container.

Claims

1. A self-locking thread system incorporated in male and female threadedly-engaged parts and to be locked-up in response to relative rotation of the parts, one of the said parts being provided with a helical thread having a transverse cross-section of substantially trapezoidal configuration to present a camming working face, a helical fin positioned below said thread on said same part and having a width greater than the thread flight, the pitch of the fin and thread being the same, the other threaded part being so dimensioned and arranged so that relative rotation of the parts will cause the camming surface to deflect the fin into a jamming position between said threaded parts to bind the parts against inadvertent unscrewing thereof.

2. In a thread system comprising a male helical element rotatably and threadably engaged on a common axis with a female helical element to translate relative rotary motion of the elements into relative axial movement of the elements, each of the elements having mutually confronting threads, the improvement wherein said female element thread has a transverse cross-section of substantially trapezoidal configuration which forms a downwardly sloping camming surface and a helical fin on the interior of the female element spacedly positioned below said female element thread and parallel to the upper surface thereof extending inwardly and adapted to be abutted by the male helical element, the principal plane of the fin being substantially at right angles to the axis of rotation, and the fin, in the disengaged condition of the elements, having a radial extent so relasted that upon relative rotation of the elements the fin is deformed in radial and axial directions by said male element and said camming surface into a jamming position between the respective threads of said elements to increase the radial and axial frictional forces between the two elements in their engaged contition and placing them in a sealed and locked position.

3. A self-locking thread system comprising a male part and a female hollow cylindrical part to receive the male part, said parts being rotatably engaged, a helical fin and a helical rib extending from the inner wall of the female member, the helical rib having a trapezoidal transverse cross-section and a working face which is a conical helix with its apex coincident with the common axis of the male and female parts, said helical rib being coextensive in the direction of its length with the helical fin, the pitch of the fin and the rib being the same, the fin adapted to be deformed by the rib upon relative rotation of the said parts to a jamming position between said parts to increase the friction therebetween to preclude inadvertent backing off of the said parts attributable to shock and vibration.