Hot-fillable plastic container having vertical pillars and concave deformable side-wall panels

Abstract

A hot-fillable plastic container includes a base and a body extending upward from the base. The includes a deformable cylindrical sidewall portion defining a central vertical axis, wherein the deformable cylindrical sidewall portion comprises at least two vertical pillars arranged along the body circumference. Each vertical pillar is joined to the next vertical pillar by a generally concave deformable sidewall panel having a concave arc-shaped transverse cross section of curvature radius. The curvature radii of the vertical pillars are smaller than the curvature radii of the generally concave deformable panels, and each transition between a vertical pillar and a generally concave deformable panel is smooth without any convex portion. The large curvature radius of each generally concave deformable panel allows an inward deformation of each panel, and each pillar is slightly pushed outward and is slightly deformed with a small reduction of its curvature radius, under the vacuum created inside the container by the volume reduction of a hot-filled product during cooling.