Shrink sleeved bottle

Abstract: The invention relates to a bottle (1) having a base, a top part and sides, the bottle comprising a handle (2) located on a side of the bottle, the bottle being shrink-sleeved (3), whereby the sleeve does not cover the handle.

Description: Technical Field The invention relates to packages such as bottles used for containing fluids, and which are made by a shrink-sleeving process. Background of the Invention Bottles are widely used in consumer goods industry for packaging various type of fluid products. Such bottles are normally decorated, often using labels which are stuck onto the bottle. Such labels are typically used not only for decoration but also to display usage instructions or information on the composition of the content for example. However, conventional labelling technology such as wet glue labels, self-adhesive labels, or in mold labels do not allow to decorate the full bottle surface area. The accumulation of such visual signals led the industry to develop new approaches allowing higher decoration coverage of the container's surface, one of them being the shrink-sleeving of packages. Shrink-sleeving is mostly used in the drinks industry, whereby a sleeve of thermo-plastic material may be shrunk all around a beverage bottle, thus offering an extended area which may be used for any type of graphics. Typical thermoplastic materials used for shrink sleeving include polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyestertetraphtalate (PET), oriented polypropylene (OPP) and oriented polystyrene (OPS). However, use of shrink-sleeving did not extend to relatively larger containers, particularly because of the need of a side handle when such containers are used. Indeed, the sleeving of a bottle consists in inserting the bottle into a straight sleeve of thermo-plastic material, the thermo-plastic being then heated up to shrink and fit tightly around the container. Clearly, in case of a container or bottle having aside handle, such a process would lead to preventing access to the handle as the sleeve would cover the recess produced by the handle, so that the handle cannot be gripped. EP-A-0 609 575, published on 10 th August 1994, discloses a sleeved bottle having a handle which merges with the side of the bottle at two regions (i.e. top and bottom of the handle). The sleeve is provided with a cut-out substantially corresponding to the position of the gripping handle. However, when a shrink-sleeving process is used, it has been found to be difficult to assemble the sleeve and the bottle in such a way that the size and position of the cut-out is always accurate. The cut-out must be relatively large in order to extend between both of the two merged regions of the handle and bottle, so that the cut-out region encompasses the whole handle. The relatively large cut-out is prone to misalignment and or tearing during the sleeving process. The present invention seeks to provide a bottle with a side handle, whereby the surface available for displaying graphics onto the bottle is maximised. Summary of the Invention The object of the invention is accomplished by a bottle having a base, a top part and sides, the bottle comprising a handle, the handle being an integral part of the bottle and being located on a side of the bottle, the bottle being shrink-sleeved, whereby the handle merges with the side of the bottle in one region only, and whereby the sleeve does not cover the handle. Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a side view illustrating a sleeved bottle (1) according to the invention, the handle (2) merging with the side of the bottle in the top region only, the sleeve (3) being cut out (4) in the merging region. Figure 2 is a front view of the bottle of Figure 2. Detailed Description of the Invention The invention relates to a decorated bottle where the means of decoration is a shrink sleeve. The term bottle hereby should be understood generally as a container for fluid products, fluid products including liquids as well as flowing materials such as powders or granule. The bottle has a base. By a base it should be understood a part of the bottle on which the bottle is left to stand up-right. This part my be flat, on may for example be formed from a moulded tripod, or from a flat ring. Many types of "base" are known in the art, the main feature of such a base being to hold the bottle in a stable position on a flat supporting surface. The bottle further comprises a top part. The top part is typically the part of the bottle opposed to the base. The top is commonly the part of the bottle which provides an exit for the content of the bottle. The bottle also comprises sides. The sides are the surfaces which generally speaking are joining the top and the base of the bottle. Typically, when the bottle is upright, the sides are substantially vertical and perpendicular to the base. The sides may also have a curved or relatively complex shape depending on the bottle considered. The bottle comprises a handle located on a side of the bottle. This makes the bottle different from bottles without handles (such as for example bottles for soda or beer portions), and also from bottle with a handle on the top part (such as "heavy" bottles of the type used for containing more than 5 liters of petrol for example). The handle according to the invention is normally forming a recess in the vertical direction when the bottle is upright, the recess being such that a user may slide the hand in the recess to hold the bottle by the handle. Further, the bottle is shrink-sleeved. Shrink sleeving consists in enveloping a part of the bottle in a thermoplastic tube like sleeve, the sleeve being heated to shrink and fit onto the bottle. According to the invention, the sleeve does not cover the handle. This conveniently . reduces the likelihood of contact between a consumer hand and the sleeve cut-out fringe when gripping the handle. As a matter of fact, the sleeve fringe can exhibit sharp edges which can result in paper cut to consumer hands or simply unpleasant contact. In this manner, access to the handle is easy and direct, the user gripping directly the handle itself, without being in contact with the sleeve. Such a result may be obtained in various ways. According to the present invention, the handle is an integral part of the bottle, the handle merging with the side of the bottle in one region only, the sleeve being cut out in the merging region. In such an embodiment, the cut out in the sleeve should preferably have a surface at least equal or larger than the largest cross section of the handle, so that the sleeve may be placed onto the bottle prior to shrinking, the cut out being slipped onto the handle, the sleeve being shrunk thereafter. In such an embodiment, the cut-out has a closed perimeter. It should be noted that the cut out may have a surface slightly smaller than the cross section of the handle where the handle merges with the side of the bottle. In another embodiment, the handle is an integral part of the bottle, the handle merging with the side of the bottle in one region only, the sleeve covering the sides of the bottle from the base up to the merging region, or whereby the sleeve covers the sides of the bottle from the top down to the merging region. In such a case, there is not a particular need for a cut out for example as the sleeve is simply positioned from the top or from the base up to the region where the handle merges with the side of the bottle. However, a. cut out may be provided, the cut out having in this case a non-dosed perimeter, whereby the sleeve may be slipped on the bottle beyond the region where the handle merges with the side. The cut out in this case is an indent in the sleeve allowing the sleeve to reach beyond the merging region mentioned above. In another embodiment, the handle is an integral part of the bottle, the handle merging with the side of the bottle in one region only, a first sleeve covering the sides of the bottle from the base up to the merging region, and whereby a second sleeve covers the sides of the bottle from the top down to the merging region. This embodiment corresponds to a combination of the two previous embodiments, and has the advantage to allow coverage by the sleeve of a larger part of the bottle. In the preferred embodiments, the sleeve covers at least 30% of the outer surface of the bottle, in order to provide for a sufficient surface to application of graphics. More preferably, the sleeve covers at least 50% of the outer surface of the bottle, even more preferably 65%, and most preferably at least 80% of the outer surface of the bottle. It should be understood the "outer surface of the bottle" hereby comprises the whole outer surface, including the outer surface of the base, or of the handle for example. In the preferred embodiments, the bottle has an internal volume of at least 1 litre and of less than 5 litres. Even more preferred is a bottle with an internal volume of less than 3 litres. Indeed, a handle would not be particularly needed for smaller bottles, and a side handle would be preferably replaced by a top handle for larger bottles. The cutting of the sleeve can be achieved by various means such as mechanical die cutting, laser cutting or water jet cutting.

Claims: A bottle having a base, a top part and sides, the bottle comprising a handle (2), the handle (2) being an integral part of the bottle and being located on a side of the bottle, the bottle being shrink-sleeved, whereby the sleeve (3) does not cover the handle (2), characterised in that the handle (3) merges with the side of the bottle in one region only. The bottle according to claim 1, whereby the sleeve (3) is cut out (4) in the merging region. The bottle according to claim 1, whereby the sleeve (3) covers the sides of the bottle from the base up to the merging region, or whereby the sleeve (3) covers the sides of the bottle from the top down to the merging region. The bottle according to claim 1, whereby a first sleeve covers the sides of the bottle from the base up to the merging region, and whereby a second sleeve covers the sides of the bottle from the top down to the merging region. The bottle according to any of the above claims, whereby the sleeve (3) covers at least 30% of the outer surface of the bottle. The bottle according to any of the above claims, whereby the bottle has an internal volume of at least 1 litre and of less than 5 litres.

Inventors: BLAKE ALAN DAVID, ETESSE PATRICK JEAN-FRANCOIS, JOHNSON KAREN AMANDA, MOSS GATES MARKHAM, BLAKE, ALAN DAVID, ETESSE, PATRICK JEAN-FRANCOIS, JOHNSON, KAREN AMANDA, MOSS, GATES MARKHAM
Applicants: PROCTER & GAMBLE, THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY
Application year: 1999
Main classification: B65D23
IPC codes: B65D23