North American Packaging Company

Grief Bros. Corporation

George Patton

Harry Mays

Michael Morrison

A ring reinforcement is utilized on the circular head and bottom of a conventional 55 gallon drum. The conventional drum contains a cylindrical steel body having the two conventional V-shaped ribs expanded into the sidewalls at the middle of the cylinder. The drum&mdash;when either of the open-head or closed-head variety&mdash;has a circular head and a circular bottom closing in sealed relationship with the drum interior. This circular head and circular bottom are reinforced by welding a drum-reinforcing rim preferably inside the barrel. It has been found that remarkable resistance to bulging results, enabling the barrel to be shipped with product with up to 25 psi pressure relative to the barrel exterior without objectional distortion.

Ring reinforcement for conventional drum

An open head drum (2) is provided with an improved seal for preventing the entrance of contaminating air during jarring transport of the drum. The conventional open head drum includes a hollow tubular drum body (4), an integrally attached circular end wall (12) closing one end of the hollow tubular drum body, and a lid seat (6) defined in the hollow tubular drum body adjacent the open end for receiving a removable drum lid (10). The removable drum lid is likewise conventional having an inner wall (16) for closing the open end of the hollow tubular drum body and an outer wall (18) for co-acting with the lid seat in sealed relationship for closing the hollow tubular drum body. The improved seal includes an endless sealing membrane (30) extending continuously around the lid seat and the removable drum lid. The endless sealing membrane has a first annular portion (38) attached to the lid seat, a second annular portion (40) attached to the removable drum lid, and a flexible annular portion (42) between the first and second annular portions. When separation of the removable lid from the seat occurs, the endless sealing membrane at the flexible annular portion prevent ingress of atmosphere interior of the drum. A process of installation of the seal is disclosed together with the seal as an article of manufacture.

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Merced, CA, United States of America

George Patton