Patent ID: 8302794

Claim:
A tamper evident container closure formed from a plastics material in a mold having a mold core, the closure adapted for use with a container having a threaded neck, the neck including an annular rim extending around the circumference of the neck, the container closure comprising a cap having a top wall and an annular side wall, the side wall including a top edge appended to the top wall and a bottom edge positioned to extend away from the top wall, the annular side wall including internal threads to engage the threaded neck of the container, a tamper band having a bottom edge and a spaced apart top edge appended to the bottom edge of the side wall by a plurality of frangible elements, a plurality of retention tabs depending from the tamper band, the retention tabs being molded in their in-use position to extend toward a longitudinal axis of the tamper band and toward the top wall of the cap at a predetermined angle of inclination, the retention tabs having a free end adapted to engage the annular rim of the container, and retainer means for retaining the retention tabs to the tamper band in their in-use position and to permit the retention tabs to flex downwardly so that the retention tabs can pivot out from beneath the mold core during ejection of the closure from the mold and automatically pivot back to the molded in-use position upon clearing the mold core without requiring an intermediary manufacturing step of manually repositioning the retention tabs from a flexed position to the molded in use position prior to use, and wherein the mold core includes a smooth outer surface and a lower edge positioned adjacent the retention tabs and the lower edge has a corner radius from about 0.005 inches to about 0.008 inches to allow the retention tabs to pivot around the lower edge without shearing of the retention tabs from the tamper band during ejection of the tabs from the mold core.