HOT FILL PLASTIC CONTAINER HAVING SPACED APART ARCHED RIBS

摘要

The present invention provides an improved blow molded plastic container (10 ) that is adapted for hot fill applications. The hot fill container (10) of th e present invention comprises a plurality of vacuum panels (22), having substantially arched upper (24) and lower ends (28), as opposed to the substantially straight upper and lower ends as described in the related art. The hot fill container (10) of the invention further comprises novel and unique vacuum panel reinforcement means. The vacuum panel reinforcement mean s are a series of arched ribs (42). One series of ribs is placed in the label mounting area (50) above the vacuum panels (22) and one series of ribs is placed in the label mounting area (52) below the vacuum panels (22). The rib s (42) extend noncontinuously around the circumference of the body (18) of the plastic container and are spaced apart from each other by a land area (58). Each rib (42) is also spaced apart from the vacuum panel (22) and is centere d over a land area (58) between vacuum panels. The hot fill bottle of the invention is particularly adapted to minimize the stress placed on the corne rs of vacuum panels and to resist flexing when the container is filled with a h ot liquid.