Transportation ring
View Patent ↗A unitary, removable, transportation ring for maintaining the closure of a covered container, such as a cylindrical paint can, snaps into place and securely maintains a lid on the container even in an environment of high pressure within the container. The ring is responsively operable in the presence of elevated and extreme pressures within the container to improve the engagement of the ring with the container, and to improve the engagement of the lid with the container, each in order to maintain the cover tightly sealed over the top opening of the container. An annular flange depends from the inner radial margin of the body of the ring and abuts the lid or cover of the container to maintain the engagement of the lid with the container.
1. A ring for maintaining the closure of a cylindrical container, the cylindrical container including a rim flange attached to the upper end of the container around the circumference of the container and extending radially inwardly therefrom, said rim flange defining an annular locking channel depending downwardly from the rim flange for receiving an annular channel of a container lid adapted to fit within the locking channel for sealing engagement between the lid and container, the lid having an annular ridge extending upwardly from the lid, the ring comprising:
an annular body;
an annular outer limb depending downwardly from the body;
an annular locking finger extending radially inwardly from the outer limb;
an annular inner limb depending downwardly from the body; and
an annular flange extending in a radially-inward direction from the inner limb, the annular flange having an axial thickness greater than a thickness of the annular body, the axial thickness being uniform along the radially-inward direction;
whereby when in use the ring engages the cylindrical container such that the annular locking finger engages an outer circumference of the rim flange, the annular inner limb depends into the annular channel, and the annular flange contacts the lid at the annular ridge of the lid radially inwardly of the annular channel of the lid to maintain closure between the container and lid.
2. The ring of claim 1 , wherein the outer limb and inner limb are substantially parallel.
3. The ring of claim 1 , wherein the outer limb depends from the outer margin of the annular body.
4. The ring of claim 1 , wherein the locking finger is defined by a locking surface extending radially inwardly and by a chamfered guide surface for guiding the finger to pass around a lip on the outer circumference of the rim flange until the locking surface engages the lip as the ring is positioned to engage the container.
5. The ring of claim 1 , wherein, in the presence of pressure sufficient to force distortion of the lid outwardly from the interior of the container, the engagement of the locking finger with the lip increases with the force of the distortion.
6. The ring of claim 5 , wherein, in the presence of the sufficient pressure, the inner limb applies a force to the annular channel thereby increasing the engagement of the lid with the container.
7. The ring of claim 1 , wherein the ring is an integral member of generally rigid, resilient high impact plastic.
8. The ring of claim 1 , wherein the annular flange includes an abutting surface for contacting with the lid, whereby the axial thickness of the annular flange is thick enough such that the abutting surface contacts the lid when placed in engagement with the container to maintain placement of the lid.
9. A device for maintaining closure of a container having a lid, the container defining a lip at the top edge of the container and a rim flange extending inwardly from the lip towards the center of the container, the rim flange including a locking channel for receiving the lid, the lid defining a lid channel around the perimeter of the lid for engaging the locking channel, the device comprising:
a body adapted to fit on top of the container;
an outer limb depending from the body;
a locking finger member extending inwardly from the outer limb towards a central vertical axis of the body;
an inner limb depending from the body and adapted to fit within the lid channel; and
an interior flange extending inwardly from the inner limb of the body towards the central vertical axis of the body and depending downwardly from the body continuously along the length of the interior flange, wherein the interior flange is adapted to contact an upwardly-extending portion of the lid disposed inwardly from the lid channel;
whereby when in use the outer limb extends about the lip of the container, the locking finger member engages the lip of the container, the inner limb extends into the lid channel, and the interior flange contacts the upwardly-extending portion of the lid disposed inwardly from the lid channel to maintain closure between the container and lid.
10. The device of claim 9 , wherein, in the presence of pressure sufficient to force distortion of the lid outwardly from the interior of the container, the engagement of the locking finger with the lip increases with the force of the distortion.
11. The device of claim 9 , wherein, in the presence of pressure sufficient to force distortion of the lid outwardly from the interior of the container, the inner limb applies a force to an inner wall of the lid channel thereby increasing the engagement of the lid with the container.
12. The device of claim 9 , wherein the lip of the container comprises a toroidal roll of an upper margin of a sidewall of the container with an outer margin of the rim flange of the container, wherein the device maintains closure of the container by maintaining engagement of the lid with the rim flange of the container.
13. The device of claim 9 , wherein the interior flange comprises an abutting surface for contacting the upwardly-extending portion of the lid.
14. The device of claim 9 , wherein the container is cylindrical and the device is annular.
15. The device of claim 9 , wherein the locking finger is annular and engages the lip about the circumference of the container.
16. A containment system comprising:
a cylindrical container having an outward radial lip at its top edge and a rim flange extending radially inwardly from the top edge, the rim flange including a downwardly depending locking channel;
a lid adapted to fit onto the top surface of the rim flange of the container, the lid including an annular channel for sealing engagement with the locking channel and an annular ridge disposed radially inwardly of the locking channel and extending upwardly from the upper surface of the lid; and
a ring for maintaining closure of the lid with the container under pressure conditions, wherein the ring has a central axis, comprising:
an annular body;
an annular outer limb depending from the body and passing around the lip of the container;
an annular locking finger extending radially inwardly from the outer limb and engaging the lip of the container;
an annular inner limb depending from the body for engaging the annular channel defined in the upper surface of the lid; and
an annular flange depending downwardly from the body in a direction parallel to the central axis of the ring and extending therefrom radially inwardly of the annular inner limb and contacting the upper surface of the annular ridge of the lid.
17. The containment system of claim 16 , wherein, in the presence of pressure sufficient to force distortion of the lid outwardly from the interior of the closed container, the engagement of the locking finger with the lip and a force of engagement between the inner limb and an interior wall of the annular channel increases with the force of the distortion.
18. A ring for maintaining the closure of a cylindrical container, the cylindrical container including a rim flange attached to the upper end of the container around the circumference of the container and extending radially inwardly therefrom, said rim flange defining an annular locking channel depending downwardly from the rim flange for receiving an annular channel of a container lid adapted to fit within the locking channel for sealing engagement between the lid and container, the ring comprising:
an annular body;
an annular outer limb depending downwardly from the body;
an annular locking finger extending radially inwardly from the outer limb;
an annular inner limb depending downwardly from the body; and
an annular flange extending from the body radially inwardly from an inward-facing surface of the annular inner limb, the annular flange having a relative thickness greater than the thickness of the annular body such that an abutting surface of the annular flange depends downwardly below the bottom surface of the annular body, the relative thickness of the annular flange being uniform along its extent;
whereby when in use the ring engages the cylindrical container such that the annular locking finger engages an outer circumference of the rim flange, the annular inner limb depends into the annular channel, and the abutting surface of the annular flange contacts the lid radially inwardly of the annular channel to maintain closure between the container and lid.
19. The ring of claim 18 , wherein the outer limb and inner limb are substantially parallel.
20. The ring of claim 18 , wherein the outer limb depends from the outer margin of the annular body.
21. The ring of claim 18 , wherein the locking finger is defined by a locking surface extending radially inwardly and by a chamfered guide surface for guiding the finger to pass around a lip on the outer circumference of the rim flange until the locking surface engages the lip as the ring is positioned to engage the container.
22. The ring of claim 18 , wherein, in the presence of pressure sufficient to force distortion of the lid outwardly from the interior of the container, the engagement of the locking finger with the lip increases with the force of the distortion.
23. The ring of claim 22 , wherein, in the presence of the sufficient pressure, the inner limb applies a force to the annular channel thereby increasing the engagement of the lid with the container.
24. The ring of claim 18 , wherein the ring is an integral member of generally rigid, resilient high impact plastic.