It is conventional to form a tamper-indicating closure having a band connected to the skirt of the closure by integral frangible bridges. The band has a stop element (e.g., a bead or flange) that engages a bead on the container to resist unthreading of the closure, so that removal of the closure ruptures the frangible bridges that connect the band to the closure skirt. U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,265, assigned to the assignee hereof, discloses a tamper-indicating closure of this character, in which the tamper-indicating band is completely severed from the closure skirt and remains with the container following removal of the closure from the container. Although tamper-indicating closures of this so called "drop-band" type have enjoyed substantial commercial acceptance and success, particularly in the U.S., it is desirable in many situations to provide for removal of the tamper-indicating band with the closure. This is particularly true, for example, where the container is to be reused, or to be recycled for manufacture of new containers. In either of these applications, it would be necessary to remove a tamper-indicating band that remains on the container after the closure has been removed.
U.S. Pat Nos. 4,432,461 and 5,295,600, both assigned to the assignee hereof, disclose tamper-indicating closures in which the tamper-indicating band remains with the closure following removal from the container. In each of these patent disclosures, the tamper-indicating band is coupled to the skirt of the closure by a plurality of bridges, one of which is sized so as to be non-frangible in normal use. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,461, both ends of the tamper-indicating band are connected to the closure skirt by a bridge of enlarged circumferential and/or radial dimension, so that both ends of the band remain connected to the skirt following rupture of the other bridges and removal of the closure from the container. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,600, an interrupted circumferential scoreline extends around the skirt and band to provide the frangible bridges between the skirt and band, and to provide the enlarged bridge between the skirt and band at the point of interruption of the scoreline. A pair of axial scorelines are provided in the tamper-indicating band circumferentially adjacent to the enlarged bridge. Thus, one end of the tamper-indicating band remains connected to the closure skirt following rupture of the frangible bridges and removal from the container, while the opposing end of the tamper-indicating band is free of connection to the skirt forming a so-called "pigtail" band.
In manufacture of tamper-indicating closures of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,600, it is necessary in the manufacturing tooling to orient the closure with respect to the score tooling so that the vertical or axial scores are properly positioned with respect to the interrupted circumferential score. It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a pigtail-type tamper-indicating closure and method of manufacture in which the need for axial scores in the tamper-indicating band is eliminated, and in which there is no requirement or need for orienting the closure during the circumferential scoring operation. Another object of the present invention is to provide a tamper-indicating closure and method of manufacture in which the closure is adapted for use either as a pigtail-type tamper-indicating closure in which the tamper-indicating band is removed from the container with the closure, or as a drop-band type tamper-indicating closure in which the band remains on the container after removal of the closure.
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USPTO Backgrounds