Patent ID: 8584874

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 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 means for engaging the 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, the tamper band comprising a flared lower edge that causes the tamper band to expand during ejection from the mold core, 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.