Technical Field

The present invention relates to retaining devices or muselets for bottle corks, particularly for sparkling wines, champagne and/or cava corks.

More particularly, the invention relates to a cap and cage retention assembly for bottle corks made up of a cap or top portion and a closure ring or waist tightening around the neck of the bottle, attached by legs of a metallic wire wraparound cage, comprising several legs, wherein considerable savings have been achieved with respect to the amount of metallic wire used to form said cage, without having any negative effect on the security, firmness and stability of the provided retention.

Furthermore, the proposed cap and cage retention assembly for bottle corks has been designed to be produced with completely automatic means, providing a very effective retention. State of the Art

As is well-known, a retaining device or muselet for bottle corks is essentially made up of three different parts: a top (generally formed by a disc-shaped dished cap with peripheral notches), a metallic wire cage and a wire closure ring or segment formed like a closed ring for being fastened to the neck of the bottle.

The shape of muselets that have been applied for many years has changed over time and this change has been primarily driven by the application of improvements in production processes, which were initially done by hand and later became semiautomatic or automatic.

Patent document FR-B 1-2784078 discloses a muselet for fixing a champagne bottle cork, in which a simplified construction of said metallic wire cage that is made up of only two different U-shaped parts providing four legs is proposed, each of said different parts being formed from a folded single wire, i.e., a single-wire element, comprising two legs and an intermediate element or portion and with the ends of said legs formed in the shape of a loop for coupling on the closing ring for fastening to the bottle. Although this solution from patent document FR-B 1-2784078 does entail significant savings with respect to wire compared with conventional cages, for example those described in FR-A-2359784, EP-B1-1634664 or WO-A2009/063526, mentioned only by way of example of standard solutions, which describe wire cages in which the legs thereof are formed by two twisted strands providing a double loop at the ends thereof, it suffer from the risk of being weak with respect to assuring the stability of the retention, since the single- wire structure of its legs provides only one engaging hook for engaging with the closure ring, which can be released and weaken the functionality of the retaining device or muselet.

Other solutions providing wire cages in which two or more of the legs are formed by single-wire elements are described in patent documents WO-A-2013/175084 and in the EP-Bl- 2160339. In these cases, the portion of engaging hook in the closure ring or closed ring for securing to the bottle has the same risks and deficiencies as in the aforementioned patent document.

In addition, different solutions for forming an effective engaging hook for assuring stability of the retention of the muselet have been proposed over the years. Therefore, various solutions can be cited: WO-A-2013/068657 (Figures 2 and 3), ES1042894U (Figure 3), FR-A- 1119674 (Figures 4 and 5), FR-A-2316181, EP-B 1-1760004 (forking of the ends of the legs in the form of an elongated sheet) and EP-B1-0044798.

In any case, it seems that none of the solutions mentioned in this second group of patent documents can be applied to a retaining device using a wire cage with single-stranded legs such as those disclosed by the first group of patent documents.

It is precisely the problem of the weakness of the retention provided by said single-wire legs in the cases in which they have been adopted in the past that is approached and solved by the present invention by means of a particular technical rule.

Disclosure of the Invention

As indicated above, the invention proposes a cap and cage retention assembly for bottle corks, particularly for champagne and/or cava bottles, characterized in that the metallic wire cage is obtained in single-strand form, using a minimum amount of said metallic wire, but providing effective, very secure and firm retention of the cork to which it is applied.

The cap and cage retention assembly for bottle corks, which can be applied to sparkling wine or champagne corks, of the invention, comprises, according to standard construction, the following elements:

- a cap, particularly a circular cap and with a dished area and a peripheral skirt, provided with several equidistant notches, said cap being applied placed against the top of the cork;

- a waist or closure ring intended for tightening around the neck of the bottle and being fixed thereto; and

- a cage comprising legs which serve as an attachment between said closure ring and said cap, the end of each of said legs being provided with an engaging hook encircling the section of said closure ring.

According to the proposal of this invention, said engaging hook comprises:

a first bent portion, for example an arcuate portion, at least partially going around the closure ring;

- an end segment of said arcuate portion, which is located above the section of said closure ring, directly facing or opposite a first bend of the arcuate portion, located below the closure ring;

at least one fold is configured in said end segment of the arcuate portion, said fold providing a section of wire which is prolonged and arranged adjacent to the end segment and arcuate portion, together configuring a two-wire portion extending at least until being a part thereof adjacent to the surface of the neck of the bottle; and the end two-wire portion is facing the neck of the bottle.

In this manner and starting from a single-wire leg, there is provided at least one double retaining section (two-wire portion) the end part of which is arranged facing the wall of the bottle with respect to which the section of the closure ring or waist is facing or goes around (according to preferred embodiments described below), achieving a very firm grip and highly effective retention given that at least the resistant portion of the loop is formed by two strands, as in conventional solutions, even though it is obtained from a single-wire leg.

According to a preferred embodiment, after the fold said section of wire is furthermore prolonged by means of a second arcuate portion, which is arranged adjacent to the first bend, going around the closure ring, such that said two-wire portion is prolonged and extends below said closure ring.

According to yet another embodiment, a free end of the second arcuate portion after the fold is arranged below the double tip or area of the fold and being trapped by same performing retaining functions. By means of this embodiment, the closing and retaining action is even further enhanced, using only one additional reduced wire segment to provide said free end.

According to a preferred embodiment, said waist or closure ring is formed by a wire having a constant circular section.

In a possible embodiment, said wire cage is made up of two U-shaped parts, each of which is formed from a folded wire, providing two of said legs and a intermediate portion, and said intermediate portion is configured for resting on a flat peripheral area of said cap, between the dished area of the cap and the skirt, the legs being trapped in said notches in a manner similar to the structure disclosed by said patent document FR-B 1-2784078, so an even greater savings in wire is achieved for forming the box and the construction and application thereof to the cap and cage retention assembly by automatic means is further simplified. At the same time, the proposed solution prevents the insufficient or ineffective retention problems present in said FR-B 1- 2784078.

Said folded wire will also preferably be formed by a wire having a constant circular section. Brief Description of the Drawings

Figures 1 and 2 are respective perspective views of the cap and cage retention assembly of the invention, showing the cap at the top portion thereof, the single-wire structure of the wire cage, the wire closure ring or waist and the engaging hooks of the four legs comprised in said wire cage engaging the closure ring or waist of the cage.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the proposed cap and cage retention assembly in which the single-wire condition of the legs of the wire cage and the two-wire configuration of the fixing loops for fixing the cage to said closure ring are also seen.

Figure 4 shows an elevational view of the cap and cage retention assembly for bottle corks, in which an engaging hook for engaging the cage with the ring is shown in a circle, a perspective view of which is shown in Figure 5 and an enlarged perspective view of which is shown in Figure 6.

Detailed Description of an Embodiment

Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 show a cap and cage retention assembly for bottle corks of sparkling wines, champagne and/or cava, according to the proposal of this invention, showing a cap 1, configured, for example, with a dished central area and provided with a peripheral skirt 2 provided with several notches 4, a waist or closure ring 3 intended for tightening around the neck of the bottle and being fixed thereto and a wire cage 5 comprising attachment legs 7 between said closure ring 3 or waist and said dished cap 1, the end of each of said legs 7 being provided with an engaging hook 9 encircling the section of the waist 3, all according to a well-known or conventional structure.

According to the present invention, each of said engaging hooks 9 in which the legs 7 are finished comprises a first bent portion, for example an arcuate portion 10, at least partially going around the closure ring 3, said arcuate portion 10 having a end segment 11 located above the closure ring 3, opposite a first bend 10a of said bent portion, which is below said closure ring 3, and there being at least one fold 12 defined in said end segment 11.

Said fold 12 provides a section of wire 13 which is arranged adjacent to the end segment 11 and bent arcuate portion 10, forming a two-wire portion 14. Said section of wire 13 extends at least until part of same is adjacent to the surface of the neck of the bottle, such that the two-wire portion is facing the neck of the bottle. Therefore, in this very basic embodiment said two-wire portion has a very effective resistive profile to prevent the loop from coming loose when the closure ring 3 is closed, and for this ring to apply a tensile force on the loops, at the same time.

According to a first embodiment, said section of wire 13 is even further prolonged by means of a second arcuate portion 15, adjacent to said first arcuate portion 10, going around the closure ring 3, extending below said ring 3. The two-wire portion 14 therefore extends below the closure ring 3 and next to said first bend 10a.

In another preferred embodiment, the free end 16 of the section of wire 3 forming the second arcuate portion 15 is furthermore located above the waist 3 and tightened around same.

According to an even more preferred embodiment (given that it provides firmer and more secure retention conditions), said free end 16 is arranged right below said fold forming a double tip (end of the two-wire portion 14), said free end 16 being trapped by that tip, performing retaining functions.

In one embodiment, the first arcuate portion 10 goes around the closure ring 3, extending in a loop towards the inside of the cage, and in a second alternative embodiment, said first arcuate portion 10 goes around the closure ring 3, extending in a loop towards the outside of the cage.

According to a preferred embodiment and to minimize the amount of wire used, said cage 5 is made up of two U-shaped parts 6, each of which is formed from a folded wire, providing two of said legs 7 and an intermediate portion 8 configured for resting on a flat peripheral area of said cap 1 , between said central dished area of the cap 1 and a perimetric skirt 2 provided with equidistant notches 4, according to a structure similar to the one described in patent document FR-B 1-2784078, but preventing the retention problems of the loops of the cage present in said prior art document.

For the purpose of simplifying the production process of the proposed assembly, it is proposed that both the closure ring 3 and said folded single-stranded wire used to form the legs 7 is made up of a wire having a constant circular section.

As can be seen in Figures 1, 2, 4 and 5, said legs 7 of the wire cage are trapped in the notches 4 defined in the skirt 2 of the cap 1, and said intermediate segments are arranged in support on an intermediate flat corona between the dished area 1 of the cap and said skirt 2 thereof.