Tamper-evident cap having plural diameters

Abstract

A plastic cap for a container neck formed with upper and lower external locking beads has a top disk from which depends an upper outer skirt having an upper internal locking bead and a larger diameter lower skirt having a lower internal locking bead. Between the skirt sections is an outward extending flange which is weakened by a notch cut in its outer corner to form a circumferential line of weakness. When the cap is seated on the neck the upper and lower beads inter-engage, the cap cannot be removed without evidence of tampering. To fracture the flange at the line of weakness, in one form of the invention, a tear tab depends from the lower edge of the skirt and a curved score line at the upper end of the tear tab extends up from the lower edge of the skirt to the level of the line of weakness. Pulling the tab tears the skirt at the curved score line and around the line of weakness, removing all or a sufficient portion of the lower skirt and its lower internal locking bead. In another form of the invention, a tear tab connected to the lower skirt extends upward, displaced outward of the lower skirt and the latter is weakened in a substantially vertical score line extending up from the lower edge of the skirt to the line of weakness. By bending the tab outward the score line is broken and by pulling the tab around the cap, the lower skirt is torn off.