EP0303865B1 - Foldable blank for cigarettes - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a collapsible box made of foldable, thin cardboard or the like, in particular for cigarettes, with a box part having a front wall and rear wall and a lid hinged to the rear wall, with projections which reduce the internal dimensions and are arranged in the interior of the box part.

Such hinged boxes - also called hinge-lid packs - are widely used for cigarettes. The interior of the hinged box is practically completely filled by the contents of the pack, in the case of cigarettes by a cigarette group wrapped in an inside wrap (tinfoil cut). In many cases, however, it is desirable to keep the size unchanged Pack folding boxes to pack objects that do not completely fill the interior. For example, cigarettes have recently been brought onto the market that have a smaller diameter than those previously used. This results in a smaller dimension, in particular a smaller depth of the cigarette group. To compensate for the difference in dimensions, a separate spacer made of plastic (polystyrene foam) has hitherto been attached to such packs within the same. The production of such a package is complex and costly due to this additional spacer.

DE-A-2 551 427 shows a hinged box according to the preamble of claim 1, in which in the region of the rear wall are formed by an additionally provided reinforcement as part of a reinforcement blank inward projections. There is a slight reduction in volume. Overall, this pack is also complex and costly.

GB-A-522 469 is a box with an outer sleeve and an inner slide part can be removed. The latter has inwardly folded projections in the area of longitudinal edges for reducing the volume in these areas. This changes the outer contour of the corresponding edges of the slide part. The type of pack is much more complex than the hinged box described above and cannot be compared with it.

The invention has for its object to develop and improve a folding box such that objects, in particular cigarette groups of smaller dimensions than those of the usual interior of a folding box, are supported and fixed within the folding box without additional packing parts.

To achieve this object, the hinged box according to the invention is characterized in that the projections from the back wall of the box and / or the front wall of the box are formed and extend over a large area over the majority of the front wall and / or rear wall.

The projections serve to support the contents of the folding box, in particular the cigarette group, in such a way that, despite the smaller volume than the folding box, it is kept largely free of play within the latter.

The projections are molded into the walls of the hinged box and can have different shapes and sizes - depending on the shape of the contents of the hinged box.

The rear wall and / or front wall of the box part of the hinged box lend themselves to the attachment of large-area projections which protrude into the interior of the pack and which contain the contents of the pack support accordingly over a large area.

The projections can be made in various ways. A corresponding embossing of a blank for producing the hinged box is advantageous. The embossing is primarily done by compression molding. Male and female act on the blank in the area of the projection to be formed. In addition, heat and possibly moisture can be used to improve the embossing process.

Alternatively, the projections can be formed by folding the corresponding blank parts. In this case, the rear wall and / or front wall are provided with fold lines formed in the blank, which lead to the formation of the projection when the hinged box is finished as a result of the folding processes.

Further details relate to the design of the hinged box and the manufacture of the projections thereof.

Fig. 1

eine Ausführungsform einer Klappschachtel in Rückansicht,

Fig. 2

die Klappschachtel gemäß Fig. 1 in Seitenansicht,

Fig. 3

einen Vertikalschnitt in der Ebene III - III der Fig. 1,

Fig. 4

einen Horizontalschnitt längs der Ebene IV - IV der Fig. 1,

Fig. 5

einen ausgebreiteten Zuschnitt für die Herstellung einer Klappschachtel gemäß Fig. 1 bis 4,

Fig. 6

einen ausgebreiteten Zuschnitt für die Herstellung eines anderen Ausführungsbeispiels einer Klappschachtel,

Fig. 7

einen Längsschnitt durch den Zuschnitt gemäß Fig. 6.

Embodiment of the invention are explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings. It shows:

Fig. 1

an embodiment of a hinged box in rear view,

Fig. 2

1 in side view,

Fig. 3

2 shows a vertical section in the plane III-III of FIG. 1,

Fig. 4

2 shows a horizontal section along the plane IV-IV of FIG. 1,

Fig. 5

a spread blank for manufacturing a hinged box according to FIGS. 1 to 4,

Fig. 6

a spread blank for the manufacture of another embodiment of a hinged box,

Fig. 7

6 shows a longitudinal section through the blank according to FIG. 6.

The exemplary embodiments of folding boxes shown in the drawings serve to hold cigarette groups 10, which are shown schematically in FIGS. 3 and 4 as a cuboid block, namely as a cigarette group with inner wrapping made of tin foil or the like. The basic structure of the folding boxes corresponds to conventional packaging of this type. A box part 11 and a lid 12 are hingedly connected to one another via a hinge line 13 in the region of a box rear wall 14 and a lid rear wall 15.

The box part 11 consists - apart from the box rear wall 14 - of the box front wall 16, box side walls 17, 18 and a bottom 19. The lid 12 includes - besides the lid rear wall 15 - the lid front wall 20, lid side walls 21, 22 and top wall 23. Inside the box part there is a collar 24 which is connected to the collar front wall 25 and the collar side walls 26, 27 in the upper region of the box part 11 with the box front wall 16 and the box side walls 17, 18. The collar 24 protrudes with an upper part out of the box part 11 and is enclosed by the cover 12 in the closed position of the hinged box.

The package content, namely the wrapped cigarette group 10, has a smaller volume than the volume of the folding box predetermined by the outer dimensions thereof. To fix the contents of the package in the hinged box, 1 to 5, the box rear wall 14 is provided with an inwardly projecting projection 28 formed therefrom. This extends practically over the full dimension of the box rear wall 14. An inward-facing support wall 29 of the projection 28 lies against the contents of the pack and thus forms a limitation or support for the latter within the hinged box.

1 to 5, the projection 28 is formed by folding. For this purpose, a blank (FIG. 5) for the manufacture of the hinged box is provided with folding lines which, when the hinged box is folded into the three-dimensional shape, automatically or with the aid of appropriate folding tools, give rise to the projection 28. The fold lines are formed in a conventional manner by sloping. Depending on the shape of the projection 28, side fold lines 30, 31 are provided to delimit the projection 28 from the box side walls 17, 18 and an upper fold line and lower fold line 32, 33 to delimit the projection 28 from the lid 12 and the bottom 19. Inner folding lines 34 are attached at a distance from the aforementioned folding lines 30..33. These delimit a rectangle, which also makes up the size of the support wall 29.

Miter lines 35, 36 go outwards from the corners of the rectangle delimited by the inner fold lines 34 in the direction of the fold line 30..33. The miter lines 35, 36 run diverging from the corner point of the rectangle. This is possible because the side fold lines 30, 31 with the upper fold line 32 and the lower fold line 33 do not converge at a corner point, but are at a distance from one another. The side folding lines 30, 31 are laterally offset from an upright rear edge of a conventional folding box, namely in the region of side tabs 37, 38 as part of the box side wall 17, 18. The projection 28 is formed by the folding of the blank thus formed as a result of the arrangement of fold lines described. This is given a trapezoidal shape due to the inclined transition walls 39 in vertical section as well as in horizontal section.

An alternative for a hinged box with projections in the area of the box part is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 using a spread blank. A projection 40, 41 is formed here in the area of the box rear wall 14 as well as in the area of the box front wall 16. These projections 40, 41 are formed by stamping the blank. When it is spread out, it is inserted into an embossing press with a die and a patrix. The embossing is carried out to form the projections 40, 41 by pressure, possibly in conjunction with heat and moisture.

The projections 40, 41 are of smaller size here than the surface of the box rear wall 14 or box front wall 16. Nevertheless, the projections 40, 41 form the majority of the aforementioned box walls, so that the contents of the package are supported on both sides over a large area.

The shape of the projections 40, 41 is chosen such that - as in the exemplary embodiment described above - a trapezoidal shape is produced in the vertical section as well as in the cross section. Each projection 40, 41 is delimited by outer edges 42 and inner edges 43. The corner points of the edges 42, 43 combined into a rectangle are connected to one another by miter edges 44. This creates flat, large, inward-facing support walls 45.

Claims (9)

1. Hinge-lid pack made of foldable thin cardboard or the like, especially for cigarettes, with a pack part (11) having a front wall (16) and a rear wall (14) and with a lid (12) articulated on the rear wall (14), projections (28; 40, 41) directed into the interior of the pack part (11) and reducing the inner dimension being arranged, characterised in that the projections (28; 40, 41) are formed from the pack rear wall (14) and/or the pack front wall (16) and extend in a large area over the predominant part of the front wall and/or rear wall.
2. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 1, characterised in that a large-area projection (28; 40, 41) respectively extends over approximately the entire surface of the pack rear wall (14) or of the pack front wall (16).
3. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the projections (28; 40, 41) are arranged in regions of a blank assigned to the pack rear wall (14) or pack front wall (16) and are made before the folding of said blank.
4. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 3 and one or more of the further claims, characterised in that the projections (40, 41) are formed by the embossing of the blank.
5. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 3 and one or more of the further claims, characterised in that the projections (28) are formed by folding, folding lines (30-36) for limiting the projection (28) being shaped into the blank.
6. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 1 and one or more of the further claims, characterised in that a projection (28; 40, 41) has an inwardly pointing (large-area) supporting wall (29; 45) and transitional walls (39) directed obliquely relative to the latter and leading into the pack rear wall (14) or into the pack front wall (16).
7. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 6, characterised in that, particularly if the projections (28) are formed via folding and cover the entire surface of the pack rear wall (14), the transitional wall (39) leads to lateral or to upper and lower edges of the pack rear wall (14).
8. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 1 and one or more of the further claims, characterised in that, if the projection (28) in the pack rear wall (14) is formed by folding, outer lateral folding lines (30, 31) for the lateral limitation of the projection (28) are offset outwards into the region of side tabs (37, 38) for forming pack side walls (17, 18).
9. Hinge-lid pack according to Claim 1 and one or more of the further claims, characterised in that, if the projection (28) is formed by folding, mitre lines (35, 36) diverging between corner points of inner inside folding lines (34) and ends of outer lateral folding lines (30, 31) as well as an upper folding line (32) and lower folding line (33) are arranged as folding lines.

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