Safety closure device

Claim 2

Tamper-proof selectively openable closure means, comprising a body member including an externally threaded neck with an axialend opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members, said inner member having a closed end and a bore formed to engage the threads of said neck, interengaging means on said tubular members defining a limited axial lost-motion relation therebetween, said tubular members being relatively free to rotate at one limit of said lost-motion, and deformable follower means on one of said tubular members engageable with a coacting cam part of the other of said tubular members during the course of said lost-motion displacement in the direction away from said one limit, said other tubular member also including a part having clutch engagement with said follower means only when the latter has been deformed by cam action; whereby, when said closure-cap means is secured to said neck, a rotation of said outer tubular member in the unthreading direction is operative to dislodge the threaded engagement only after first axially displacing said tubular members through at least a part of said lost motion.

Claim 3

Closure means according to claim 1, wherein said tubular members have overlapping adjacent substantially cylindrical surfaces for substantially concentric piloting of said tubular members.

Claim 4

Closure means according to claim 1, wherein said tubular members have ratchet-engaging elements with one-way engagement in the thread-on direction of capping said neck, whereby said freedom for relative rotation applies only for the unthreading direction of driving said outer tubular member with respect to said neck.

Claim 5

Closure means according to claim 1, wherein said deformable means is resiliently deformable.

Claim 6

Closure means according to claim 4, wherein said deformable means includes a radially deformable element carried by one of said tubular members and having a resiliently deflectable portion poised for interfering relation with a part of the other tubular member during the course of lost-motion movement from said one limit.

Claim 7

Closure means according to claim 5, in which said interfering relation applies for substantially all relative axial positions of said tubular members.

Claim 8

Closure means according to claim 5, in which the magnitude of said interfering relation progressively increases in the direction of said relative axial displacement away from said one limit.

Claim 9

Closure means according to claim 5, in which said deformable element and said other tubular member have dog-engageable formations which are disengaged in the absence of deformation of said deformable member and which engage to lock said tubular members against relative rotation upon axial lost-motion displacement away from said one limit.

Claim 10

Tamper-proof selectively openable closure means, comprising a body member including an externally threaded neck with an axial-end opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members, said inner member having a closed end and a bore formed to engage the threads of said neck, the external periphery of said inner tubular member being substantially cylindrical and including a tubular skirt portion projecting axially away from the open end of said inner tubular member, coacting axial-retaining means on said tubular members defining a limited axial lost-motion relation therebetween, said tubular members being relatively free to rotate at one limit of said lost motion, cam means on said inner tubular member and within said skirt, deformable projecting clutch means including a cam-follower element carried by the outer tubular member, and said clutch means having cammed rotation-resisting engagement with said skirt at a relative axial position of said tubular members removed from said one limit but relatively free of such rotation-resisting engagement at substantially said one limit, whereby displacement of said tubular members away from said one limit is a condition precedent to an unthreading drive of said inner tubular member upon grasping said outer tubular member.

Claim 11

Tamper-proof selectively openable closure means, comprising a body member including an externally threaded neck with an axial-end opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members, said inner member having a closed end and a bore formed to engage the threads of said neck, the external periphery of said inner tubular member being substantially cylindrical and including a tubular skirt portion projecting axially away from the open end of said inner tubular member, coacting axial-retaining means on said tubular members defining a limited axial lost-motion relation therebetween, said tubular members being relatively free to rotate at one limit of said lost motion, cam means on said inner tubular member and within said skirt, deformable projecting clutch means including a cam-follower element carried by the outer tubular member, and said clutch means having cammed rotation-resisting engagement with said skirt at a relative axial position of said tubular members removed from said one limit but relatively free of such rotation-resisting engagement at substantially said one limit, whereby displacement of said tubular members away from said one limit is a condition precedent to an unthreading drive of said inner tubular member upon grasping said outer tubular member.

Claim 12

Closure means according to claim 9, in which resilient means coacting between said tubular members urges said tubular members in the direction of said one limit.

Claim 13

Closure means according to claim 9, in which said outer tubular member has a closed end overlapping the closed end of said inner tubular member, said projecting means including an element carried by the closed end of said outer tubular member.

Claim 14

Closure means according to claim 9, in which said axial-retaining means comprises axially spaced radially inwardly directed elements carried by said outer tubular member, whereby said inner tubular member is at all times fully contained within said outer tubular member.

Claim 15

Tamper-proof selectively openAble closure means, comprising a body member including an externally threaded neck with an axial-end opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members, said inner member having a closed end and a bore formed to engage the threads of said neck, the external periphery of said inner tubular member being substantially cylindrical and including a tubular skirt portion projecting axially away from the open end of said inner tubular member, said outer tubular member having a closed end overlapping the closed end of said inner tubular member, coacting-axial-retaining means on said tubular members defining a limited axial lost-motion relation therebetween, said tubular members being relatively free to rotate at one limit of said lost motion, projecting means including an element carried by the closed end of the outer tubular member and having rotation-resisting engagement with said skirt at a relative axial position of said tubular members removed from said one limit but relatively free of such rotation-resisting engagement at substantially said one limit, said projecting element extending generally longitudinally within said skirt at a location offset from the axis of said tubular members and being resiliently radially outwardly deformable, and a flared cam surface forming part of the closed end of said inner tubular member and poised to interfere with said projecting element in the course of lost-motion displacement away from said one limit.

Claim 16

Tamper-proof selectively openAble closure means, comprising a body member including an externally threaded neck with an axial-end opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members, said inner member having a closed end and a bore formed to engage the threads of said neck, the external periphery of said inner tubular member being substantially cylindrical and including a tubular skirt portion projecting axially away from the open end of said inner tubular member, said outer tubular member having a closed end overlapping the closed end of said inner tubular member, coacting-axial-retaining means on said tubular members defining a limited axial lost-motion relation therebetween, said tubular members being relatively free to rotate at one limit of said lost motion, projecting means including an element carried by the closed end of the outer tubular member and having rotation-resisting engagement with said skirt at a relative axial position of said tubular members removed from said one limit but relatively free of such rotation-resisting engagement at substantially said one limit, said projecting element extending generally longitudinally within said skirt at a location offset from the axis of said tubular members and being resiliently radially outwardly deformable, and a flared cam surface forming part of the closed end of said inner tubular member and poised to interfere with said projecting element in the course of lost-motion displacement away from said one limit.

Claim 17

Closure means according to claim 13, in which said projecting element is one of a plurality of such elements, angularly spaced about said axis and in like interfering relation with said flared surface.

Claim 18

Closure means according to claim 13, in which said projecting element and said skirt have cooperating tooth formations for said rotation-resisting engagement.

Claim 19

Closure means according to claim 15, in which the tooth formations on said skirt are generally cylindrically arrayed about said axis, and in which the tooth formations on said projecting element are arrayed in a tapering surface about said axis, said tapering surface being deformed in approach to conformity with the cylindrically arrayed formations of said skirt in the course of said lost-motion displacement away from said one limit.

Claim 20

Tamper-proof selectively openable closure means, comprising a body member including a neck with an axial-end opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members in retained axial lost-motion relation, said neck being externally configurated to be engaged with and closed by said closure-cap means with an action which involves at least as a component of such action a first rotational direction to close and the opposite rotational direction to open, said inner member having a closed end and a bore configurated to engage the external configurations of said neck with said action, coacting one-way engagement means between said tubular members and having driving engagement for said first direction of rotation of said outer tubular member and escaping non-driving relation in said opposite direction of rotation of said outer tubular member, and means for selectively connecting said tubular members for rotation in said opposite direction of rotation, said last-mentioned means including a deformable follower element on one of said tubular members engageable with a coacting cam part of the other of said tubular members; during the course of lost-motion displacement, said other tubular member also including a part having clutch engagement with said follower element only when the latter has been deformed by cam action.

Claim 21

Tamper-proof selectively openable closure means, comprising a body member including a neck with an axial-end opening to be selectively opened and closed, and closure-cap means comprising relatively rotatable inner and outer tubular members in retained axial lost-motion relation, said neck being externally configurated to be engaged with and closed by said closure-cap means with an action which involves at least as a component of such action a first rotational direction to close and the opposite rotational direction to open, said inner member having a closed end and a bore configurated to engage the external configurations of said neck with said action, coacting one-way engagement means between said tubular members and having driving engagement for said first direction of rotation of said outer tubular member and escaping non-driving relation in said opposite direction of rotation of said outer tubular member, and means for selectively connecting said tubular members for rotation in said opposite direction of rotation, said last-mentioned means including a deformable follower element on one of said tubular members engageable with a coacting cam part of the other of said tubular members; during the course of lost-motion displacement, said other tubular member also including a part having clutch engagement with said follower element only when the latter has been deformed by cam action.