Interconnectable Beverage Container System

This invention relates generally to packaging, and is more particularly directed to containers for beverages or the like, e.g., soft drink bottles or beer bottles. More specifically, the invention is concerned with containers having integral interconnective means for forming a multi-pack cluster of the containers without requiring any paper, paperboard, plastic film or other additional packaging material to form the multi-pack cluster.

Beverages, foods and other products have long been sold as individual containers packaged together in a multi-pack sales unit, such as the popular six-pack or twenty-four bottle case. These clusters are typically held together with paper, cardboard, cellophane, or plastic film packaging material. Usually, this must be torn to remove the individual bottles and the packaging material must be discarded. Thus, the packaging material constitutes a source of waste and litter, as well as an additional manufacturing or packaging cost.

Recently, several states have enacted so-called "Bottle-Bill" legislation, under which the consumer pays a deposit (typically five cents) for each bottle or container of soft drink or beer, and a merchant or recycle center returns this deposit when the consumer brings in the cleaned, empty containers. Typically, the containers must be grouped according to brand for cost accounting purposes. The bottle returns are then sent back to the beer or soft drink distributor, and are eventually refilled (for some glass bottles) or broken up for scrap (for steel and aluminum cans, one-way glass bottles, and plastic bottles).

Handling and temporary storage of the empty returnables has thus presented problems for the consumer, the merchant, and the distributor.

A number of attempts have been made to package beverages and the like to facilitate clustering the full or empty containers. Jennison U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,812 relates to milk containers with male and female connections, and which snap together to form a cluster of four bottles. Wells et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,491 relates to interconnectable cans, bottles, and the like with alternate ribs and recesses that permit a cluster of the containers to be snapped together. Other interlockable container systems have also been proposed, e.g. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,139,114 and 3,994,408. However these employ a snap lock system, and none uses or suggests a slide-lock interconnection system; consequently, the integrity of a cluster or multi-pack is less than acceptable for commercial handling and distribution purposes. Further, none of these prior proposals provides a useful handle to facilitate lifting a multi-pack cluster in either the full or empty state.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a bottle suitable for soft drinks, beer, other beverages, or the like and which can be interconnected with one another to form a multi-pack cluster.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a container whose structure forms convenient fingerhole handles for the multi-pack cluster.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a container system which avoids the wasteful need for paper, cellophane, plastics or other packaging materials, thereby avoiding litter and protecting the environment.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a container system which facilitates the return of empty containers.

In accordance with an aspect of this invention, a container for beverages or the like is formed so as to be connectable with a plurality of like containers to form a multi-pack cluster without external binding material. The container of this invention comprises a neck portion and a body portion coaxial with it, the body portion having a plurality of axially-extending male tongue members and a plurality of axially-extending female groove members. The tongue members and the groove members are disposed at regular spaced intervals about the periphery of the body portion of the container, with the tongue members each having a front facing surface and a pair of oppositely disposed, axially extending undercut sides. The groove members each have a pair of oppositely disposed undercut axially extending projections that define a void between them, such that the male tongue member slides fits snugly in the axial direction into the void of the respective female groove member of another container of the cluster. In a preferred embodiment, the container has two of the tongue members diametrically opposed on the container, and two of the groove members also diametrically disposed thereon. To facilitate lifting the multi-pack cluster of these containers, each container has a neck flange or neck plate integrally formed with the neck portion, and extending radially outwards towards the periphery of the container. The neck plate is formed of a plurality of lobes that define cutouts between adjacent lobes. When the containers are joined one to another, the respective cutouts of the adjacent joined containers together define fingerholes so that the cluster of containers can be lifted by their neck plates.

The above and many other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be more fully understood from the ensuing detailed description of a preferred embodiment, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cluster of containers according to a preferred embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the cluster of containers.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are side elevational views, taken in the directions III and IV, respectively, of the preferred embodiment of the container of this invention.

With reference to FIGS. 1-4 of the drawings, an interconnectable bottle or beverage container 10 is shown. The container as shown is a twelve ounce bottle suitable for soft drinks, beer, or other beverages, and is of a type of plastic synthetic resin which can be blow molded or otherwise formed. The containers of this embodiment are favorably dimensioned so as to be employed in a standard bottle filler line at a bottling plant or brewery, without significant modification to the filler line.

As illustrated, the bottle or container 10 has a body portion 12 which is generally cylindrical in shape, and a neck portion 14. The neck portion has a threaded open top 16 to receive a mating threaded crown or other closure (not shown) and has a lateral flange or neck plate 18, which can serve as a handle for lifting the container 10. A conic shoulder or funnel portion 20 connects the body portion 12 with the neck portion 14.

A side wall 22 of the container body portion 12 has a pair of diametrically opposed female longitudinal connecting members 24, and also has a pair of male longitudinal connecting members 26.

Each longitudinal female connecting member 24 includes a recess 28 that is defined by a pair of undercut sides 30, the sides 30 extending parallel to one another and for the axial extent of the periphery of the container side wall. Each male connecting member 26 is formed of a tongue or projection 32 having a cylindrical front or facing wall 34, having a pair of undercut sides 36. A concave cylindrical surface 37 surrounds each projecting tongue 32.

As is shown in the drawings, each female connecting portion has the recess 28 open at a top end 38 and at a bottom end 40 thereof. The containers are interconnected with one another simply by sliding the male connectors 26 axially, i.e., longitudinally into the female connectors 24 of adjacent ones of the containers 10 to form a multi-pack cluster. This interconnection is shown favorably in the plan view of FIG. 2.

The neck flanges 18 are here formed of four lobes 42 directed ninety degrees apart. Outermost edges 44 of these lobes 42 are disposed radially inward of the positions of the connecting members 24, 26 to leave a clearance for the insertion of the male members 26 into the female members 24 without the neck plate 18 interfering therewith. The lobes 42 have recesses 46 between successive ones of the lobes 42, with the recesses appearing at positions midway between successive ones of the connecting members 24, 26. Accordingly, when the containers 10 are assembled together to form a multi-pack cluster 50, as shown, e.g. in FIGS. 1 and 2, the recesses 46 for each of the adjacent containers cooperate with one another to define fingerholes 52. The fingerholes 52 here formed by the four cooperating recesses 46 of the neck plate 18 of the four adjacent bottles 10. In a six-pack cluster 50, as shown in FIG. 2, there are two such fingerholes 52.

The tongue and groove arrangement of the male and female connecting members 26, 24 for adjacent containers in the cluster 50 provide a snug and secure fit, without the necessity of paper, plastic film or other binding material. That is, the beverages can be sold in clusters having only the containers, the beverage, and the closures or caps, thus eliminating a manufacturing procedure and cost associated with the packaging material.

It is evident that additional containers 10 can be clustered together to form a cluster of any arbitrary number of containers as well as the units of conventional size, such as 4, 6, 12, 24 or 36 containers. Filled bottles can be packaged as six-packs or as four such six-packs as separate units in twenty-four bottle case units of sales, with the six-pack units being formed without paper or plastic or metal packaging materials, simply by joining together the containers by means of the female and male tongue and groove connecting members 24, 34. The cases can be delivered in existing cartons for ordinary bottles. If the containers 10 are returnable bottles, the containers 10 can be easily stacked and stored, and can be clustered to form a convenient structure to facilitate counting and checking the returnable containers; the clusters form a convenient mode for storage until later collection by the soft drink or beer distributor. The empty bottles being returned to stores or redemption centers, or to distributors, may be joined together in clusters of twenty-four, independent of the cardboard case tray or carton which is used for shipment of four six-packs from bottler to distributor. These case trays can be reused, in which case the only packaging material necessary for delivery of the bottles to the distributor will be the case tray or carton.

As shown in this embodiment, the undercut portion 36 of the male tongues 32 and the undercut sides 30 of this female connecting members 24 are angled and dimensioned so as to have a significant gripping contact area. The female groove members 24 do not yield to sideward force, so with the structure as shown herein, the containers 10 connect and disconnect with respect to one another only by sliding the tongue and groove connecting arrangement 24, 26 longitudinally: the containers 10 do not snap or unsnap laterally from one another.

The containers of this embodiment can easily be formed from a parison of a convenient plastic synthetic material, forming the containers 10 in a blow mold. Alternatively, any other convenient bottle forming technique could be used. The containers of this invention can be recycled either by refilling or by grinding up the containers 10 for recycling, e.g. as paint, etc.

While a preferred embodiment has been described in detail hereinabove, it should be recognized that many alternative arrangements would present themselves to those of skill in the art without departing from the principles of this invention. For example, the tongue and groove connecting members could be disposed at other than 90.degree. intervals around the container 10. In one possible alternative, there could be six such connectors, disposed, e.g., male, female, female, male, female, female. Also, as an alternative to the disclosed embodiment, the two pairs of connector members 24, 26 could be disposed around the container side wall 22 in the order male, male, female, female. Still further, it should be recognized that the container is not limited to its contents, and could be employed for containing a liquid or fluid other than beer or soft drinks, e.g. lubricants, copy machine toner, etc. Furthermore, the containers need not be of twelve ounce size, but could be any convenient size, e.g. four, six, seven, eight, ten, sixteen ounce, quarter liter, half liter, etc.

Accordingly, the scope and spirit of this invention is to be defined by the appended claims.