Patent ID: 8231025

Claim:
A process for dispensing flowable material from a fluid-dispensing container, comprising attaching a cap to a spout of said fluid-dispensing container forming a tamper-evident assembly, wherein said tamper-evident assembly comprises: (A) an annular flange, for attachment to a container; (B) a spout, projecting upwardly from the annular flange and having an upper end and a lower end, the spout having an interior dispensing passage and at least one external annular rib; and (C) a cap, having a top with an external depending skirt and a frangible tamper indicating band releasably attached to the skirt, the cap further including an internal skirt depending from the top and spaced inwardly from the external skirt and operable to be received within the fluid passage to provide a seal between the cap and the spout; wherein the assembly has a first pre-cap position in which the cap is received on the upper end of the spout, with: the frangible tamper indicating band positioned above the external annular rib and abutting a top surface of the external annular rib, and the internal skirt being received within the passage and contacting an internal annular surface of the spout providing a seal between the internal skirt and the internal annular surface of the spout; wherein the assembly has a second full-cap position in which the cap is located on the lower end of the spout, with: the external annular rib being located between the external skirt and the frangible tamper indicating band, and the upper end of the spout being located adjacent the top of the cap, the internal skirt being received within the passage and the internal skirt forming a seal with the upper end of the spout; wherein the cap and spout have cooperating detent and locking elements, and when the cap is secured to the container, said cooperating detent and locking elements allow the cap: (a) to move from a first pre-cap position, wherein the cap is removably sealed to the spout and the frangible tamper indicating band is not broken when the cap is removed for filling, and (b) to move to a second full-cap position wherein the cap is removably sealed to the spout providing that the frangible tamper indicating band is broken upon removal of the cap from its second full-cap position to dispense flowable material from the container; wherein the assembly in the first pre-cap position or the second full-cap position provides an aseptic seal between the cap and the spout; wherein the cap is received on the upper end of the spout for the pre-cap position or the full-cap position by a push-on process; and wherein the cap is removed from the spout either from the pre-cap position or the full-cap position by a pull-off process.