CN113439060A - Paperboard package and method of assembling same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of manufacturing packages for mainly liquid, fatty foods or products containing or releasing fat and moisture. The result is a wider range of technical means and methods. A method for assembling a package for a food product comprising: the blank forming a flat bottom having fold lines separating the side walls of the package; forming a double wall, wherein, after folding, the outer part of the double wall is a support for the entire package and for the insertion of the shaped element in the form of a tab in said wall, the double wall being arranged at both ends of the adjacent side walls, and the angled element between the side walls, closer to the bottom of the package, so as to form a sealing film during assembly of the package. The package is manufactured from a cellulose paper substrate and a laminate layer on the inside of the package, which is in contact with the food product.

Description

Paperboard package and method of assembling same

Technical Field

The basic field of the invention is the manufacture of cardboard packages for mainly food products and products containing or extracting fat and moisture.

More specifically, the field of the invention is packaging structures, i.e. in the form of containers, manufactured by die-cutting a form from laminated pulp and paper material, the packaging structure being formed along fold lines and bonded so that double walls and corner elements are formed, between which a film for maintaining and enhancing the sealability of the entire product is mounted. The outer wall is thus a support for the entire package and is in contact with the surface on which the package is placed.

Background

State of the art products made from pulp and paper materials are not sealed and do not allow keeping food warm for a long time, which causes problems when using cardboard packages.

Today, catering establishments, different restaurants, cafes, groceries require the use of cardboard packages instead of plastic containers for their products. For example, different boxes, containers in which food and dishes are provided to the end user, are used as cardboard packages. That is, end users may use such packages when they wish to eat food directly from the package after a long period of transportation or to place the purchased product into household glassware. The ability to store food products for long periods of time by manufacturers and end users is of significant importance. Thus, there is a need for a package: (i) use of additional elements and by a specific method that allows keeping the package sealed for a long time, (ii) allow keeping and increasing the temperature of the food, (iii) have a pleasant appearance and (iv) be manufactured in different sizes and types.

Food manufacturers have also introduced unique elements of the overall package design to appeal to customers. Often, the cost of the food package provided by the manufacturer also increases the ultimate cost of the overall provided product. Therefore, food manufacturers are interested in purchasing high quality packages that prevent fat and moisture leakage.

That is, in order to make the package competitive and reduce the product cost, it is necessary to produce a package different from other commercially available items, both in view of different additional elements and using a method to accelerate the package assembly process to make the package for increased efficiency without loss of quality.

For example, significant differences and advantages of packages include increased product sealability, extended seal cycle times, light weight and durability, heat retention and use of different additional covers, use of less raw materials during manufacture, and ease of transport.

Various prior art paperboard products made by assembling slit blanks are known.

The cardboard package of patent No. WO/2006/045212 is assembled by folding and used for storing, transporting and/or displaying articles. The package form has a base, side walls, a double covering and inwardly folded corners, each corner comprising four elements. The excessive use of non-laminated paperboard material is a disadvantage of such packages. The package has a double covering integrated in the structure, thus making it impossible to use different types of covering with a package bottom. The package does not have the double walls required to increase structural stability.

Patent FR2821826 is a square cardboard package made almost entirely from one solid sheet. The package is manufactured by folding and has a cover as part of a solid packaging sheet. Disadvantages of such packages also include the absence of laminate layers, the presence of a cover that is an integral part of the entire package, and single-layer walls that do not allow for heat conservation.

There are also the most advanced packages in patent No. EP0846070, which have the form of cardboard containers designed for packaging articles. It has a flat shape, where the walls adjacent to the bottom and the cover are also part of the whole structure. The disadvantages of the package also include the lack of laminate layers, excessive paperboard due to the large number of additional components, single wall not providing rigidity and heat retention.

Patent No. US20130112741 describes a package and a method of assembling such a box, which is a single integral unit with side walls, specially shaped corners, a covering and additional elements to reinforce the whole structure. The drawbacks of this package are its overall design, single-wall and additional holes that do not allow hermetically storing the food product.

There are packages assembled in the form of cartons according to patent claim No. KR 160084612. The package has double walls and full paperboard corner elements. However, there is no laminate layer in the package and there are additional elements placed along the edges of the two walls of the package, so that they form a kind of small flange.

There are cardboard packages of fruits and vegetables according to patent claim JP 3199310. The package has corner elements and double walls. However, a drawback of such packages is the lack of laminate layers and the slits that do not allow hermetically storing the food product with increased moisture and fat content.

There is a square cardboard package of patent claim CN207001037 with a covering and a double clamping element on top of the covering. The package does not contain laminated paperboard, with slits, single-layer walls and a covering as an integral part of the structure, which again does not allow to transport the product hermetically and to keep the package in the original shape.

Patent No. WO/1993/015962 discloses a tray for use as a bottom of a package and consisting of a bottom, four walls and corner elements. However, disadvantages of such packages include the lack of double walls, very low walls and a too wide bottom, the lack of locks allowing the cover to be secured to the bottom, and the lack of lamination layers on the paperboard.

Patent no FR2564427 is also a cardboard package assembled by folding a solid form. A disadvantage of this package is the three-layer wall, which means high cardboard consumption. Furthermore, the bottom of the package is not laminated, so the package does not provide long term contact with moist or greasy food.

Invention No. 2589674 is a package comprising a base and a sleeve. However, in this case, the sleeve does not form a unitary structure with the bottom, but is fixed to the bottom by means of heat sealing, which does not ultimately mean a single unit and increases the time required for assembly.

Disadvantages of the known package designs are the manufacturing complexity due to the large number of additional elements, the increased amount of material packages manufactured, the non-tightness of the cardboard packages and the inability to use them for long-term storage of wet and greasy food products.

Many packages are manufactured from different cardboard types using different stamping dies, wherein the further formation is either by means of additional fastening elements provided in the package itself or by gluing different parts of the structure together.

The types of designs available on the market have significant drawbacks, namely: (i) they do not allow to reduce the amount of material used, (ii) have complex structures that increase the manufacturing time, (iii) if used for greasy or damp food products, do not allow to increase the sealability of the cardboard package, (iv) do not allow to increase the shelf life of the hot food temperature and do not allow to keep the structure light in weight and at the same time durable.

Due to particular drawbacks and lack of opportunity to use the structure in an optimal way, all available state-of-the-art designs do not allow to meet the needs of both the manufacturer of the packages for the products they manufacture and the end-user of the ready-to-eat food products. In most package designs, slits occur during assembly and the paperboard is not laminated, as a result of which this does not provide a hermetic seal to the structure and does not allow for storage of food products with increased moisture and fat content in such packages. Even if moist and greasy food is put into such a package for a short time, due to its structure, the cardboard will soak and cannot be used for a long time without damaging the outside of the package and the surrounding articles, and moisture and fat extracted from the product may drip through the holes in the package. Packages with their covers as an integral part of the structure may also be unsuitable for storage of food products, because due to the structural features the covers may fit loosely against the side walls, allowing foreign bodies to enter the interior due to the presence of these gaps.

Accordingly, the most advanced packaging variants available, in which the covering does not form an integral part of the structure, are not sufficiently tight, because:

the paperboard of such packages is not laminated;

-there is a hole in the corner, wherein the side wall and the bottom abut each other;

-there is no further lock for tightly clamping the covering;

the absence of double walls, in which the outer walls are elongated and form additional cavities, allows to increase the structural strength and thus keep the structure lightweight, to reduce the heat exchange between the food product and the environment by means of "thermal effects", and to place it stably on the surface and in the stack thanks to these elongated outer walls.

In a laminated paperboard package without a cover, no double wall and no corner elements are formed at the same time.

Some of the most advanced designs provide corner pieces of different sizes and shapes that constitute part of the die and consist only of cardboard made of the package itself. However, such corner pieces are typically folded inwardly or toward the outer portion and further bonded to one of the walls. Furthermore, such corner pieces are used in packages with a single wall, and therefore they will always be visible. In this way, the corner pieces will come into contact with the food or, in the case where they are located on the outside, may be exposed to the environment, which leads to deformation of the package and loss of its integrity.

There are a number of designs equipped with additional elements located between the single walls and folded to form a double corner section. That is to say that all corner sections are entirely composed of cardboard, have a relatively large size and thus form rather dense package corner elements.

There is no package design that would have both double walls and corner elements as additional elements.

There is also no solution comprising corner elements between the package walls and made of a material other than cardboard.

The availability of full cardboard corner sections will not allow to speed up the assembly process using double walls. The availability of corner elements of full cardboard will therefore not allow avoiding cardboard creases by the required method, i.e. by placing additional petaloid profile elements in the side portions of one of the walls and the corner elements into the gap between the layers of the double wall.

The entire packaging manufacturing process from die cutting to assembly and further shipping will reduce the duration of all phases maintaining the same package quality level, including its sealability and appearance.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is designed to eliminate the above drawbacks and solve several problems:

allowing to create cardboard packages with such properties as durability by using double walls, sealability by using film corner elements and at the same time low weight by using laminated cardboard;

-allowing to reduce the duration of package assembly maintaining the same level of tightness by forming double walls and film corner elements;

allowing to create a completely sealed moisture and grease resistant bottom for different shaped packages, which can be used as a self-contained product as well as a cover with different shapes and adding locking holes if necessary;

-keeping the food product warm for a long time by means of the double wall and by preventing contact between the bottom of the package and the surface on which it rests;

-having a pleasant design made by a simplified folding method using additional petaloid profile elements and corneal elements aimed at maintaining the seal;

allowing the use of a minimum amount of cardboard, maintaining the tightness of the whole structure.

The technical effects of the invention are an increase in sealability, prolonged preservation of heat from the food product placed in the package, durability and light weight of the laminated paperboard product when used in a package and stacked as intended, a reduction in assembly time, and maintaining the sealability and pleasing appearance of the package.

The technical result is achieved by producing a three-dimensional structure by means of a die, in the assembly of which a double wall is formed that is in close abutment with each other by means of additional elements, i.e. the petaloid profile elements and the corner elements that form the sealing film in the corners and outer walls of the structure become a support for the entire structure and prevent contact between the bottom of the package and the surface on which the bottom of the package is placed.

The technical effect is also achieved by the fact that: the package design allows it to be used both as a self-contained product and in combination with different covers that additionally increase its sealability.

One of the important problems solved by the present invention is to propose an optimized and accelerated method for assembling packages with embedded additional elements designed to increase the tightness of the whole structure, maintaining a pleasant appearance of the package.

The present invention relates to a design of a package and a method of manufacturing the same.

The package proposed by the invention is made of cardboard. The package consists of double-walled cardboard, wherein the side contacting the food product is coated with a laminate layer. The cardboard structure, the availability of double walls and all the necessary components allow to obtain a rigid and at the same time light package which does not allow the cardboard to crease and deform during the operation.

The bottom of the package is made of pulp and paper material and the side of the package contacting the food product is coated with a laminate based on a polymer material such as polyethylene or polypropylene, or by using an off-the-shelf polymer film of a gluing substance (polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate or multilayer film) or laminated with a cellulose film.

The package is made of a precut blank (form) of the necessary dimensions, comprising a bottom, double walls on each side, corner sections between the walls and additional petaloid profile elements on the sides in the upper part of the package walls.

Furthermore, additional locking holes may be located on the outer wall of the package for clamping the covering, if necessary.

The package is assembled by folding the flat blank along fold lines.

For example, a double wall is formed by folding along a horizontal line in the central portion of the wall and then along a fold line between the side wall and the bottom, as a result of which the package is formed into a three-dimensional structure.

The side wall with the additional profile element thereon is folded along the fold line. Then folding the side wall without the additional element; given the dimensions of the package, a small portion of such side walls overlaps with the additional elements of the adjacent wall.

The side walls located opposite each other have additional petaloid profile elements. The additional element is thus designed for improving the technical effect, both for increasing the overall tightness of the structure and for improving the fixing of the corner element, since the latter is positively involved in the packaging assembly process. Without such elements on the side walls, the small area of the corner section will not provide a reliable grip of the package after assembly. The shape of the additional elements is calculated based on the final dimensions of the package, since the area of the elements should (i) be of a suitable size in order to optimize the cardboard consumption, (ii) be a little larger than the corner elements in order to overlap them, (iii) contact the inner part of the side walls in order to make it possible to glue them together and thus to clamp the structure reliably.

Furthermore, the availability of additional profile elements allows to prevent holes when folding the sides of the package.

The additional elements allow to increase the durability and prolong the application thereof both by being placed on the surface separately and by stacking (placing the packages on top of each other).

This starts the process of connecting the side walls to each other by pressing the bottom of the package from the inside to form a three-dimensional structure. Due to the fact that: additional profile elements, which after previously folding the side walls one after the other, proved to be located between the corner sections and the adjacent side walls, were smoothly mounted between the double walls during pressing.

The key difference of the package is the availability of the corner section, which is a film (membrane) consisting of two V-shaped elements. One of the sections is free of paperboard layers.

The corner element consisting of 2V-shaped sections, one consisting of paperboard layer and laminate layer and the other consisting of laminate layer only, forms a film designed to maintain and significantly prolong the sealing cycle of the package.

The fact that only one V-shaped corner section is composed of a film allows to achieve the technical effect aimed at increasing the tightness and speeding up the assembly process. The membrane (film) is part of the entire laminate layer applied to the surface of the package to prevent soaking of the pulp and paper substrate after contact with the food product. And the availability of one V-shaped section, i.e. the membrane (film) without cardboard base in this part, allows assembly using the proposed method.

A full cardboard V-shaped corner element will already result in compression of this section and deformation of the package (if used by the claimed method) and will therefore not allow to reduce the bottom assembly duration and will add an additional product assembly stage.

Furthermore, a completely cardboard corner section will not allow to achieve the required technical effect, since the package will not remain flexible and light, more cardboard has been used, and a thick cardboard layer will not allow to maintain the pleasing appearance of the design due to the spreading of the double walls caused by the excessive thickness of the folded material of the corner section.

If the entire corner section consists only of film (laminate layer), this does not allow an optimized assembly and also provides a seal, since the contact between the film and the hot glue may lead to a destruction of the shaped part, so that the seal is not achieved.

Furthermore, due to the fact that a small gap is formed between the side walls during assembly of the package, without the film, the food may already contact the adhesive layer after entering these holes, which prevents a complete tightness and does not promote human safety and health.

Since the cardboard V-shaped corner sections pull the film V-shaped corner sections when using the claimed assembly method, a desired final design of the package is accordingly allowed to be obtained, with the result that the additional profile elements and the corner sections are smoothly and simply inserted and clamped between the side double walls.

Thus, the availability of one part of the V-shaped corner section made of film and another V-shaped corner section made of cardboard provides sealability, speeds up assembly, promotes human safety and health, increases rigidity in this part, reduces the thickness of additional material and maintains a pleasing appearance.

The corner elements described herein may be used with different forms of paperboard packages to form a sealed bottom.

The present invention relates to a package to which different types and sizes of covers with locks can be secured. The double wall allows maintaining the tightness, since the cover is locked to a cooperating lock in the bottom of the package, which cooperating lock has the form of a correspondingly sized and shaped hole. In the case of a single bottom of the package, the slits would not allow the sealability of the entire structure to be maintained.

Furthermore, depending on the dimensions of the package bottom and the cover, the slit may have an optimal and appropriate size providing a reliable grip.

The claimed solution is also designed to keep the food warm for a longer time. The outer side wall increases in length and, thus, the formed protrusion prevents contact between the bottom and the surface on which the package is placed. Furthermore, the air gap formed between the surface and the bottom of the package and surrounded by the side walls allows keeping the food warm for a long time.

If the food has been heated and is hot, it will remain warm, since the bottom and the surface on which the package rests are not in direct contact, which correspondingly reduces the heat exchange.

The space formed between the bottom and the surface and double wall forms an air layer similar to that in a thermos bottle which allows keeping food or liquid warm. This air layer allows keeping the food warm for a longer time than the currently proposed solutions.

It is noted that the present invention does not limit the basic structural materials to pulp and paper materials. Other materials including processed pulp and paper materials or waste paper may be used as the structural material, considering that the inner surface of the package is fully laminated, which protects the basic structural material from moisture and fat extracted from food.

The optimal number of all parts of the package also allows to create packages with different numbers of side walls and with different sizes. If the wall extends in length or width, it is possible to modify only the dimensions of the additional elements and corner elements for assembly purposes without losing tightness and assembly time.

Drawings

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings:

fig. 1 shows a fully unfolded variant of the package. The figure shows the inside of a package with a laminate applied.

Fig. 2 shows a variant of the package in a flat state, in which the side walls with the additional petaloid profile elements are folded as a first stage of folding the package for forming a double wall. The figure is seen from the inside of the package.

Fig. 3 shows a variant of the package in a flat state, in which the remaining side walls without petal-shaped profile elements are folded as a second stage of double wall formation. The figure is seen from the inside of the package.

Fig. 4 shows a variant of the package in a flat state, in which the double walls are folded and a portion of the adjacent double walls and the petaloid profile elements overlap one another. The figure is shown from the outer (reverse) side of the package.

Fig. 5, 6 show a part of the package showing the folding and overlapping of the V-shaped corner elements consisting of film only by the V-shaped elements made of cardboard and the film remaining unchanged. When forming the three-dimensional structure of the package, corner elements having petaloid profile elements are inserted into the formed double wall of the package.

Fig. 7 illustrates a variant of the assembled package, in which the corner elements are slightly opened to show the formation of the corner elements.

Fig. 8 shows a variant of the assembled package, showing the bottom of the package.

Detailed Description

Notably, the exterior of the package is shown for illustrative purposes. In actual practice, there may be any type, material, size and shape of package.

A package form variant (fig. 1) is manufactured from a sheet cardboard blank, wherein a laminate layer is applied to the side of the cardboard contacting the food product, which can be assembled into a three-dimensional container.

That is, figures 1, 2, 3 show the inside of a flat blank with a laminate layer applied in contact with the food product. Fig. 4 shows the outside (reversed) of the package blank viewed from the bottom side.

Fig. 1 shows a flat blank with a package bottom 1 in the form of a square. The base may be of any size and format. To form a double wall, the side walls 3(3a, 3b) with the petaloid profile elements 4 are folded one after the other along the fold lines 2. Thus, when the wall 3a is folded along the fold line 2, the wall 3a is glued to the wall 3b by the glue previously applied to the inside of the wall.

Fig. 2 shows a flat blank with double wall 3 already formed, on which double wall 6(6a and 6b) without additional elements is formed along fold line 5 so as to overlap a portion of side wall 3b and petaloid-shaped profile element 4.

Fig. 3 shows a flat blank with formed double walls 3, 6 seen from the inside of the package.

Fig. 4 shows a flat blank with already formed double walls 3, 6 as seen from the opposite side, and which shows that the side wall 3b and the lobe-shaped profile element are overlapped by the wall 6 b.

Fig. 1, 2, 4 also show locks 7 on the walls 3b, 6b, the locks 7 having the form of profiled holes and being located on the outside of the package after folding so that the covering can be mounted on the package. That is, such locks 7 may be of different sizes, shapes and numbers to fit different types of coverings. Furthermore, if the package does not require any covering, the package may not have such holes 7 at all.

Fig. 5, 6 show the formation of the corner element 8, the petaloid profile element 4 and the side walls 3, 6 closing when folded and the sealability of the entire package.

Fig. 6 shows how the element 4 located on the side wall 3b is inserted between the side walls 6a and 6b after the double walls 3, 6 with the petaloid profile elements 4 have been formed, when the package is folded along the line 9 and a three-dimensional product is formed. At the same time, the corner element 8 consisting of the two V-shaped sections 8a, 8b is also completely inserted between the double walls 6a and 6 b. The V-shaped corner section 8a consisting of paperboard and laminate layers pulls the V-shaped section 8b consisting of laminate layers only and having the form of a film (membrane) to form the sealed corner of the product. Thus, when assembling the flat blank into a three-dimensional product, the corner elements 8 and petaloid profile elements 4, consisting of cardboard portions 8a and film 8b, are mounted between the double walls 6a and 6 b.

Fig. 7, 8 show an assembled package, wherein the side walls 3a, 3b, 6a, 6b are formed such that the petaloid profile elements 4 are mounted between the walls 6a and 6 b.

Furthermore, fig. 8 shows a package with side walls 3b and 6b added in relation to the bottom. The petaloid profile elements 4 are overlapped by the side walls 6 b.

The above described assembly process thus allows for the formation of a sealed package, and it is noted that the package exterior is shown for illustrative purposes only. In practical practice there may be any type of package with double walls of material and sealed corner elements of the described technology and application.

The double wall and sealed film corner elements are obtained when forming a flat blank into a three-dimensional product.

The advantage of the proposed package is its simplicity and increased assembly time, only those additional elements with increased package sealing cycles required to form a durable and light structure are available.

Claims (4)

1. Sealed package for a food product, which food product comprises a food product containing or extracting fat and moisture, which sealed package is made of a shape forming material, which consists of a structural material, and a protective laminate layer applied only to the inner side of the structural material contacting the food product, characterized in that the corner elements are located near the bottom between the side walls of the package, that each of the corner elements consists of two symmetrical V-shaped elements, one of which contains only the protective laminate layer, and that, in order to form a sealed package, the corner elements and the petaloid-shaped profile elements, which are located in the upper parts of both sides of the opposite side walls, are inserted between adjacent double walls, characterized in that: the outer portion of the double wall is increased in size with respect to the inner wall and forms a support for the entire package, preventing contact between the bottom and the surface on which the package is placed.

2. The package of claim 1, wherein the protective layer is made of a biodegradable polymer or a biodegradable film material.

3. The package of claim 1, wherein there is a locking hole on the side wall for gripping a cover.

4. A method of manufacturing a sealed package for a food product, comprising pre-manufacturing a blanking die having a lamination layer, wherein the package is further formed along the fold line separating the side walls from the bottom, characterized in that when pressing the package bottom, two sides are formed simultaneously, the corner elements forming a film and petaloid profile elements between the side walls are inserted between the two sides, and the outer wall increases in size relative to the bottom after forming.

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