Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to jugs for pouring liquids packaged
in flexible pouches, typically of a synthetic plastic film
such as polyethylene film.
5 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In many countries, the packaging of liquids, especially
milk, in rectangular flexible pouches has been widely
adopted. Since the pounches have very little inherent
stiffness, they must either be emptied into other containers
prior to use of the contents, or used in conjunction with
special jugs which support the pouch during pouring. A
typical example of such a jug is shown in United States
Patent No. 3,606,962 issued September 21, 1971 to Scholle.
These jugs are cheap to produce and fairly satisfactory in
15 operation. In order to obtain reasonably effective pouring
performance, the jug is dimensioned so that the pouch pro-
jects above the top of the jug, the front of which has no
conventional spout, but is instead shaped to support the
material of the pouch adjacent a top corner which is cut
to form a pouring spout. The exposed upper portion of the
pouch is untidy and inelegantinappearance, and is easily
inadvertently squeezed during cutting of the corner, caus-
ing unwanted spurting of the liquid contained in the pouch.
Simply increasing the height of the walls of the jug does
not solve the problem because it increases the difficulty
of cutting the top corner, and results in liquid from the
resulting spout pouring between the pouch and the jug.
S
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Adding a lid, which may be domed,to the jugA enables the
pouch to be hidden without such a large increase in wall
height as would otherwise be necessary, but any such lid
must be easy to apply and remove yet reasonably secure
during pouring, and it has proved very difficult to ensure
that a top corner of the pouch is properly presented at a
spout of the jug, both to acilitate opening and to ensure
satisfactory pouring after opening.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Wehave now developed a jug for pouring liquids from flex-
ible pouches which substantially encloses the pouch, and
can provide easy opening of the pouch and satisfactory
pouring performance, with a lid which is easily applied
and removed yet remainsfirmly in place during pouring.
The most difficult problem to overcome in producing a
satisfactory product is to obtain proper presentation of a
corner of a pouch at a pouring spout of a jug which en-
closes the pouch. We have now found that this problem can
be overcome by providing the jug with a sloped base such
as to cause the pouch to lean forward against a front wall
of the jug and present an upper corner through an opening
in the front wall.
According to the invention in a first aspect, a jug for
pouring liquid contained in a flexible rectangular pouch has
s~bstantially vertical front, side and rear ~all~ with a com-
bined internal periphery similar to the girth of the filled
pouch, the walls being of s~bstantially the same height
as the pouch, and the top edge of the ront wall defining
a downwardly extending recess to provide an opening for
the passage of a top corner of the pouch, a handle extend-
ing from the outer surface of the rear wall, and a bottom
wall connecting the front, side and rear wall~ to their
adjacent lower edges, the bottom wall sloping downwardly
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from the rear wall to the front wall whereby to tilt the
pouch against the front wall and present a top corner
thereof at said opening. Preferably the side walls are
generally divergent from the rear wall to the front wall
and the front wall is substantially oblate so as to pro-
mote such presentation.
According to a second aspect of the invention, a jug for
pouring liquid contained in a flexible rectangular pouch
has substantially vertical outwardly bowed front, side
and rear walls defining a generally ovoid cross section
with its greatest width nearer the front than the rear of
the jug and a combined internal periphery similar to the
girth of a filled pouch, the walls being substantially
the same height as the pouch, a handle extending outwardly
from the rear wall and a spout formed at the top of the
front wall, a bottom wall connecting the front, side and
rear walls adjacent their bottom edges, and a removable
lid of generally similar shape in plan to a horizontal
cross section through the walls of the jug, the lid being
of generally domed form, with an arched portion at the
front, and being resiliently flexible and having depending
intraverted flanges at its side edges, and the side walls
having extraverted flanges at its side edges engageable
above the intraverted flanges on the lid when the latter
is pushed onto the jug from the rear, the rear edge of the
lid having a depending flange engageable with the rear
wall of the jug to limit forward movement of the lid, and
the maximum distance between the outer extremities of the
extraverted flanges being such as to tend to force apart
the depending flanges of the lid as the latter is pushed
onto the jug whereby to cause the lid to grip the jug.
Preferably the lid is domed, and preferably also portions
of the front wall to either side of the spout are bowed
slightly upwardly to increase frictional engagement with
front edge portions of the lid.
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Further features of the invention will become apparent
from the following description of a preferred embodiment
thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings.
IN THE ~RAWINGS
Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 are respectively a perspective view
from in front and above, a perspective view from behind
and below, a front elevation and a plan view of a jug in
accordance with the invention;
Figure 5 is a vertical section through the jug when in use;
and
Figure 6 is a fragmentary transverse vertical section on an
enlarged scale through part of a lid of the jug and an
adjacent wall portion.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The jug shown in the drawings has a main body 2 moulded
in one piece from a fairly rigid synthetic plastics
material, and has outwardly bowed front, side and rear
vertical walls 4, 6 and 8 joined by smoothly radiused
corners to provide a cross section which is generally
ovoid, but substantially oblated at the front and rear
walls and with the side walls generally diverging from
the rear towards the front. The vertical walls are con-
nected adjacent their bottom edges by a bottom wall 10
which slopes downwardly front the rear to the front walls.
The combined internal periphery of th~ internal walls is
approximately the same as the girth of a liquid filled
pouch 12 (see Figure 5) to be received in the jug, but
preferably slightly greater so as to assist easy insertion
of a filled pouch. The pouch is an oblong rectangular
envelope of flexible material, usually synthetic plastic
film, which assumes a cushion shape when filled with a
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liquid such as milk. The height of the vertical walls is
approximately the same as the length of a filled pouch, so
that the latter just fits within the jug when irserted
therein. ~bviously different sizes of jugs are required
for different sizes of pouch, but since the latter are
generally of a standard capacity such as 1.33 litres (1.5
U.S. quarts), this will not normally be a problem.
The rear wall 8 is formed with an outwardly projecting
handle 40. In order to save material whilst providing a
generously dimensioned handle, the handle is moulded with
an H section having inner and outer flanges 42, 44, joined
by a web 46. Filler pieces 48 are joined together through
apertures in the web by spigot and socket connections 50.
The front wall 4 of the jug has a recess 14 extending down-
wardly from the top margin of its front wall to form an
opening through which a corner 16 of the pouch 12 can pro-
ject into a position where it can be cut (as shown by
broken line 18) to provide a pouring spout. In order to
provide improved support for the pouch adjacent the corner,
the side and bottom margins of the opening are inclined
outwardly to form a short spout 20, which also renders the
jug functional to pour liquids when a pouch 12 is not being
used. The front wall 4 is bowed upwardly in zones 22 to
either side of the spout 20, for reasons discussed further
below.
Each side wall 6 is provided at its top edge with an extra-
verted flange 24 which engages beneath a tapered intra-
verted portion 26 of a depending flange 28 at each side
edge of a lid 30. The shape of the lid in plan is similar
to the horizontal cross section of the jug. It is of
generally domed form and moulded from flexible resilient
synthetic plastic. It is engaged with the top edges of
the walls of the jug 2 by sliding it on from the rear so
that the tapered flange portions 26 engage beneath the
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flanges 24. The spacing of the flanges 26 is such that
they are forced apart by the flanges 24 as shown by the
arrow 36 in Figure 6. The forward movement of the lid
onto the jug is limited by a flange 32 at the rear of the
5 lid and continuous with the flanges 28. There is no
depending flange at the front of the lid, which is arched
upwardly at 34 over the spout 20. As the lid is pushed for-
ward, the front edges of lid ride upwardly over the zones
22, whilst the forces 36 acting on the flanges 28 tend to
10 bow the front edge of the lid downwardly as shown by arrows
38, against the zones 22.
In use, the lid 30 is removed from the jug 2, and an un-
opened pouch 12 of liquid is lowered into the interior of
the jug with its corners facing front and rear. As the
15 pouch comes to rest on the inclined bottom wall 10, it
leans forward against the oblated front wall 4 which flat-
tens the front of the pouch, the leaning and flattening
both contributing to presenting the corner 16 of the pouch
through the opening formed by the recess 14. The lid 30 is
20 then pushed on from the rear, and is held firmly in place
by frictional engagement between the flanges 24 and 28,
and between the lid and the zones 22. The corner 16 is
cut off to provide an actual pouring spout, and the con-
tents of the pouch may then be poured as desired.
25 When the lid is to be removed, downward and rearward
finger pressure on the arch of the lid, particularly in
the region 34 which provides a natural fingerhold, will
tend to spread apart the flanges 28 and release the lid
for rearward movement and removal. With this configura-
30 tion it is possible to provide a lid which remains securelyin place during normal use, yet requires remarkab-y slight
pressure to release it. As the front edges of the lid
slide off the zones 2~, the rear of lid tilts upwardly
into the palm of the hand, thus further facilitating easy
35 removal. The arching of the lid not only facilitates its
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application and removal, but also provides a desirable
tolerance to accommodate bags of different heights; it
has been found that there is a significant variation in
height between bags from different sources.