The current invention relates to a container comprising a body and a lid, said body defined by a bottom wall and a side wall, a lower edge of the side wall connected to the bottom wall and an upper edge of the side wall defining an opening for the body and said lid being detachably mounted on the upper edge of the side wall to close the opening. More specifically, the current invention relates to a container as mentioned above, but which is provided with means for showing tamper evidence. Such means for showing tamper evidence are arranged to disclose whether a container has been previously opened. Once the container has been opened, such means for showing tamper evidence will be activated, thereby showing to all subsequent users of the container that the container has been previously opened.

Containers with means for showing tamper evidence are widely used in many different applications. One such application is for packaging foodstuffs.

Description of related art

Containers with means for showing tamper evidence are well known and very many different embodiments are provided in the prior art. One of the more common kinds is of the type where a closing portion of the lid and or container is physically broken in order to open the container. One example of such a container is provided in US8146766.

However, the many prior art solutions all suffer from various drawbacks.

Some are complicated to manufacture, some are difficult to open, some destroy the container so that it is no longer able to be closed by the lid, some make the container expensive, others are complicated to close, etc.

It is therefore a first aspect of the current invention to provide a container as mentioned in the introductory paragraph which provides a better means for showing tamper evidence.

Summary of the invention This is provided in that the lid comprises a weakened area, the weakened area is fastened to the body via welding and/or gluing and the weakened area is arranged to be permanently broken or deformed when said lid is removed from said body. In this way, a simple closure is provided where a simple gluing or welding operation secures the lid on the body of the container. When the user wishes to use/open the container, the lid is easily removed by applying force on the lid which causes the weakened area to break away from the remainder of the lid. As the lid is now missing the weakened area, a person viewing the container will easily see that the lid has previously been removed from the container.

Further advantageous embodiments are provided in the dependent claims. It should be emphasized that the term "comprises/comprising/comprised of" when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof. For example, in claim 1 it is stated that the body comprises a side wall. However, this should be interpreted as at least one sidewalk In another example, the claim states that the lid comprises a weakened area, however this should be understood as at least one weakened area.

Brief description of the drawings

In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail with reference to embodiments shown by the enclosed figures. It should be emphasized that the embodiments shown are used for example purposes only and should not be used to limit the scope of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a top perspective view of a first embodiment of a container according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows a bottom perspective view of the container of figure 1 .

Figure 3 shows a top perspective exploded view of the container of figure 1 .

Figure 4 shows a cross section through the container of figure 1 according to the line IV-IV defined in figure 1 .

Figure 5 shows a cross section through the container of figure 1 according to the line V-V defined in figure 1 .

Figure 6 shows a top perspective view of the container of figure 1 after it has been opened a first time.

Detailed description of the embodiments

The first embodiment 1 of a container according to the invention is disclosed in figures 1 -6. In this embodiment the container 1 comprises a body 2 and a lid 3. The body in this embodiment is formed from a cardboard material coated with a plastic to provide waterproofness. In this particular

embodiment, the container is used for storing ice-cream. The body comprises a bottom wall 4 and a side wall 5 formed as a conical portion. An upper edge 6 is provided at the top of the side wall. The upper edge defines an opening 7 for the body.

The lid 3 is placed onto the upper edge of the body. The lid is formed from an injection moulded portion 10 and a label portion 1 1 . The label in this embodiment is provided as an in mould label. The label is inserted into the mould, prior to the injection of the plastic. After the mould has been closed, plastic is injected into the mould after which the label is entirely embedded in the injection moulded plastic. In this way, the injection moulded plastic portion and the label are tightly integrated with each other. However, a label which is glued or welded onto an injection moulded portion could also be imagined. Lids without injection moulded components could also be imagined, for example a lid made from folded and glued cardboard or the like.

The lid in this embodiment is formed with a central flat portion 12, a sealing flange 13, a rim portion 14 and a skirt portion 15. Furthermore, four openings 16 are provided in the rim portion of the lid, evenly spaced along the periphery of the lid. The label 1 1 covers the flat central portion 12 of the lid and extends over the openings 16 to cover them. This can best be seen in figure 4.

Once the lid is placed on the container, heat is applied via a spot welding process to the portions of the label which are arranged at the openings 16. By applying heat, the label is welded to the upper edge of the container. Instead of welding, the label could also be point glued to the upper edge of the container. Since the label is now welded to the upper edge of the container, it is necessary to either break the weld or break the label in order to remove the lid from the container. In this case, the weld is formed to be stronger than the label since the openings in the lid form a weakened area in the lid. When pressure is applied to the lid, the label at the openings is broken and the lid can be removed. Once the label is broken, the label will always be broken and it will be obvious to anyone who looks at the container that the lid has been removed. Figure 6 shows what this would look like. As can be seen, the label arranged at the openings in the injection moulded portion of the lid have been broken and holes 17 are present in the label. In the figures, the holes are shown as nice ellipses. However, in a real world situation, the label would tear in more irregular forms. However, in the current embodiment, the tearing would stop when the tear reached the edge of the opening in the injection moulded portion of the lid. Therefore, only the label portion arranged at the openings would be damaged.

As can be seen from figure 4, even though the lid after opening has holes, the sealing flange 13, still provides a seal between the lid and the container. This is because the areas which are broken are arranged to be outside the sealing area between the lid and the container.

The embodiment shown in figures 1 -6 is just one of many different

embodiments which would fall under the scope of the current invention.

For example, in one embodiment, a thin layer of glue could be applied along the entire upper edge of the body, just before mounting the lid. In this case, the lid could be placed on the body in any angular orientation and it would not be necessary to align any welding equipment with the specific orientation of the container. In another embodiment, one could imagine a case where the label was in contact with the entire upper edge of the container. For example, in figure 5, the label could proceed through the rim 14 thereby extending over the upper edge 6 of the body as well. Holes provided in the label could allow injected material present at the top of the label to flow through the holes to thereby connect to the injected material present at the bottom of the label. The label could then be glued to the upper edge of the body along the entire periphery of the body. In this way, a more secure air tight seal could be provided. When the lid is removed from the body, then the entire portion of the label along the periphery of the body would be broken. This could be seen through openings provided in the upper portion of the injection moulded portion of the lid.

In another example embodiment, the label could be provided with perforated areas which are spot welded or glued to the upper edge of the body of the container. In this way, when force is applied, the perforated areas of the label would be broken and removed. This would provide for a very well defined break in the label. Instead of perforations, other ways of weakening certain areas of the lid could also be imagined. For example, the areas could be manufactured thinner than the other areas of the lid. One way of doing this could be to provide a laminated label made up of at least two layers, where one layer had holes in it and the other layer did not. By welding the lid to the upper edge through the holes in the one layer, the welds would be made at a position where the lid was weaker than the remaining portion of the lid.

It should also be noted that in the embodiments provided above, the lid was comprised of a injection moulded portion and an inmould label portion. The lid was welded or glued to the body of the container via the in mould label. However, it would also be imaginable that the lid was entirely made as an injection moulded component and the areas which should be spot welded or glued to the body of the container where made thinner than the other portions of the lid. In this way, a well defined weakened area could be introduced into the lid, thereby controlling the area at which the lid breaks.

Other embodiments are also possible. For example, in the embodiments described above, the weakened area was arranged to be broken and removed from the lid, thereby showing tamper evidence. However, in another embodiment, the weakened area could be arranged to be deformed in a manner which could be visually identified by a user of the container when the lid was removed from the container. For example, materials exist which change colour when exposed to stress. A material like this could be arranged at the weakened area so that when the lid is removed, the material changes colour. In this case, the "weakened" area might not be physically weakened as such, but it should still be considered a "weakened" area in the context of the claims.

Furthermore, in the embodiments described above, the lid is welded/glued to the container at the upper edge of the container. However, in other embodiments, a body of a container could be imagined where the upper edge of the container defining the opening was not a simple flange like in the embodiments shown in the figures. An example could be considered where the upper edge had a stepped form with one or more "terraces" at different heights, In this case, the lid could be formed to match this "stepped" form and the lid could be welded/glued to the upper edge on one or more of these terraces. Similarly, it could be imagined that more than one sealing element is provided on the lid to seal with the body of the container. In the example as shown, a single sealing flange 13 is provided, however, with a more complex upper edge form, multiple sealing means/sealing elements could be provided on the lid to ensure an even more effective seal both before and after the lid has been removed. Also, the lid could be provided with closing/locking means, for example, the skirt could be provided with a snap flange which engages with a portion of the rim portion of the upper edge of the body of the container when the lid is placed on the body of the container.

Furthermore, in the description above, the weakened areas have been described as areas which are weakened with respect to the rest of the lid. However, the weakened areas do not have to be weaker than the entire lid. It is enough that the portions of the lid around the weakened areas are reinforced, so that when the lid is removed, the portion of the lid at the weakened area is broken and not the entire lid. In the embodiment shown in the figures, the lid comprises a centre portion 12 which supports the label 1 1 . However, a lid could be imagined just like the one shown in the figures, where the centre portion 12 was eliminated, using the label itself as a cover element. In this situation, the portion of the label at the "weakened" areas would be the same thickness and strength as the portion of the label at the centre portion. However, due to the reinforcement of the injection moulded portion of the lid surrounding the "weakened" areas, the portion of the label arranged at the weakened areas would be the only portion of the lid which would be broken when the lid was opened. The method of manufacturing the embodiments above have not been described in detail since the person skilled in the art should be aware of methods of manufacturing the embodiments described. However, in one particular method, it could be noted, that one way of providing the

"weakened" areas in a controlled manner, is providing a tool which both welds and weakens the area of the lid around the weld at the same time. For example a tool which spot welds the label to the upper edge could be imagined which simultaneously makes perforations in an oval shape around the spot welded portion of the label. In this way, it is not necessary to ensure a proper alignment of the lid in the welding tool since the weakened area and the weld is applied at the same time and in the same position. Another way of reducing the need for alignment of the welding tool with the container, is to provide a number of individual weakened areas around the entire periphery of the lid. The lid is welded/glued to the body of the container at random locations, but due to the large number of individual weakened areas, each point of welding/gluing will be placed in one of the individual weakened areas. When the lid is removed, only those weakened areas which have been welded/glued to the body will be broken. This could for example be a series of perforated areas spaced around the outer periphery of the lid.

It is to be noted that the figures and the above description have shown the example embodiments in a simple and schematic manner. Many specific details have not been shown since the person skilled in the art should be familiar with these details and they would just unnecessarily complicate this description.