EP1084959A2

EP1084959A2 - Packaging folding box

Info

Publication number: EP1084959A2
Application number: EP00850130A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bengt Björklund; Lennart Larsson
Original assignee: A&R Carton AB
Current assignee: A&R Carton AB
Priority date: 1999-08-09
Filing date: 2000-07-14
Publication date: 2001-03-21
Also published as: HUP0003213A2; EE200000374A; SE9902873L; NO20003994L; HU0003213D0; EP1084959A3; HUP0003213A3; SE522448C2; PL341894A1; SE9902873D0; NO20003994D0; RU2258646C2

Abstract

The invention relates to a packaging folding box which is provided with a re-sealable pourer/sprinkler opening and which can be handled in a traditional gluing machine and assembling/filling machine.

The folding box has a tear-off tab (18) with grip part (20) for exposing at least one pourer/sprinkler opening punched out in an underlying folding box adhesive tab. The tear-off tab extends in the folding box wall (11a), to which the adhesive tab is secured, over the edge and into an adjoining folding box wall, formed by folding box-sealing tabs.

Arranged directly under a corresponding folding box-sealing tab (14a) in which the grip part of the tear-off tab is formed, there is a further folding box-sealing tab (12b) which constitutes a continuation of the folding box adhesive tab and is not secured to the folding box-sealing tab (14a) provided with grip part.

The grip part has end portions (22, 24) lying under the folding box-sealing tabs and intended for re-sealing the folding box.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

Packaging folding boxes for poured or sprinkled products, for example food products, are available in many different designs. The type of folding box to which the invention relates is a folding box primarily intended for dry, poured or sprinkled consumer products, for example food products, washing agents, scouring agents, and other hygiene products.
A great many demands are placed on such packaging folding boxes. The folding box should be leaktight, at least powder-tight, in the unopened state, it should be easy to open and permit easy pouring, and it should be re-sealable.
Since the folding box as such is of no intrinsic economic value for the consumer, it should of course be inexpensive. To be able to characterize it as inexpensive, all cost parameters must consequently be optimized, starting from the choice of material, the process used by the folding box manufacturer, and the handling by the product filler.
All this has to be done in the context of making the packaged product sellable. As is known, sellability is based on making the product distinctive for the consumer/product purchaser. However, for reasons of cost, this distinctiveness cannot be achieved by adding an assortment of extras to the folding box structure. Flexibility, i.e. the possibility of achieving distinctiveness, has to lie in the basic design concept of the folding box structure.

BACKGROUND ART

A large number of packaging folding box structures of the type mentioned at the outset are known. A category of packaging folding box having a pourer/sprinkler arrangement placed in the top of the folding box is disclosed in the following US patent specifications: 4706875, 4799594, 5205480, 3395848, 5452850, 5145111, 4308956, 5597115 and 5582344.
Some of these folding boxes have re-sealable pourer/sprinkler openings, but in all cases tear-off tabs with grip parts, as well as sprinkler openings, are formed completely in folding box-sealing tabs.
Such an arrangement means, in the first instance, that the punching operation is critical and that a large number of sophisticated, carefully positioned punches are required. Secondly, the extensive punching-out of material from the folding box-sealing tabs means that the latter are weakened. This in turn leads to stability problems in the assembling/filling machine. In addition, the joining together of the folding box-sealing tabs with the openings arranged in them and the re-sealing arrangements demands special measures for application of adhesive, which is not possible with conventional filling and assembling machines.
Regarding the said pourer/sprinkler openings, if one wanted to change the folding box orientation around, i.e. make the top of the folding box into a folding box side wall, in order to simply and inexpensively obtain the possibility of "distinctiveness", this basic design concept does not work with pourer openings distributed across the whole folding box top, or as in all of the constructions with an opening across essentially the whole width of the folding box top, or openings distributed across the width.
A further example of a known packaging folding box provided with re-sealable pourer/sprinkler arrangement is disclosed in WO 88/07005. This folding box has a tear-off tab which extends over the edge between two adjacent folding box walls, and the grip part of the tear-off tab is placed against the folding box adhesive tab. In the same way as in the aforementioned category of folding boxes, pourer/sprinkler openings are formed in a folding box-sealing tab and are covered by the tear-off tab in the sealed state. However, this positioning of pourer/sprinkler openings once again has the disadvantage that the gluing operation in the assembling and filling machine requires glue to be applied in at least two perpendicular directions, or so-called patterned application, which makes the mechanical processing much more difficult. If such machining is indeed economically viable, the gluing of the folding box adhesive tab probably takes place at the same time as the gluing of the folding box-sealing tabs, i.e. pre-sized folding box blanks are not used. For this reason, the filling and assembling require machinery specially constructed for the purpose.
The known pourer/sprinkler arrangement with tear-off tab extending over the edge between adjacent folding box walls additionally requires, in one embodiment, four essentially fully congruent layers of material in the folding box wall where the pourer/sprinkler openings are formed, in order for re-sealing to be possible. This adds further cost to the overall concept. In another embodiment, complicated punching in the top of the folding box and corresponding perforation of the folding box wall are required. Both embodiments require large adhesive tabs, which contributes to material costs.
Tightness in the sealed state, in particular powder tightness, in the case of the first-mentioned category of known packaging folding boxes, and those just discussed, requires that the gluing of the folding box-sealing tabs be carried out in a sufficiently reliable manner. However, patterned application of glue in rapid gluing/assembling machines is a complicated operation, which does not always give satisfactory results.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to make available a packaging folding box with a pourer/sprinkler arrangement which satisfies the demands set out in the introduction and which at the same time avoids the disadvantages which have been discussed in relation to the known constructions described.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The packaging folding box is of the type set out in the preamble of attached Patent Claim 1 and its features are set out in the characterizing clause of Patent Claim 1. Advantageous developments of the invention are set out in the subclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows in a plan view, and from what is to be the outside of the packaging folding box, a first illustrative embodiment of a blank for such a packaging folding box,
Figure 2 shows a second illustrative embodiment of a blank for a packaging folding box,
Figure 3 shows a third illustrative embodiment of a blank for a packaging folding box,
Figure 4 shows a packaging folding box built up from the blank shown in Figure 1,
Figure 5 shows diagrammatically, and for purposes of illustration, an imaginary intermediate position for the blank in Figure 1,
Figure 6 shows the packaging folding box from Figure 4 when opened, and
Figure 7 shows an intermediate position for a packaging folding box provided with cover membrane and built up from the blank in Figure 1.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In terms of their handling in a gluing machine or assembling/filling machine, the blanks and packaging folding boxes shown in the drawings are to be regarded as traditional folding boxes, i.e. what is shown at the top of each drawing is, from the handling point of view, the top of the blank or of the packaging folding box, and what is shown at the foot of the drawing is the bottom, and what is shown between the top and the foot is the side walls. However, it should be pointed out here that the decorations on the blanks do not have to be applied in corresponding manner, but can be oriented so that opposite side walls of the folding box become the top and bottom. This therefore means that the pourer/sprinkler arrangement can be situated either in a side wall or in the top of the folding box.
The blank in Figure 1 comprises two pairs of folding box wall panels 10a, 10b and 11a, 11b and also a folding box adhesive tab 12 contiguous with the wall panel 10b. Each of these panels is made contiguous with the adjoining panels in a traditional manner via fold lines (shown by broken lines). Folding box- sealing tabs 16a, 16b and 15a, 15b and a folding box adhesive tab part 12a are contiguous, at the foot of Figure 1, with corresponding folding box wall panels and folding box adhesive tabs. These lower folding box-sealing tabs in the figure are of a traditional type and will not be further detailed. Together with the upper folding box- sealing tabs 14a, 14b and 13a, 13b shown in Figure 1 and also the extended folding box adhesive tab 12b, they form an opposite pair of folding box walls which, in accordance with what has been stated above, do not necessarily have to be the bottom and top.
Formed in the folding box wall panel 11 a there are tear initiations 17a, 17b which extend via portions 17c, 17d up into the folding box-sealing tab 14a. Between the tear initiations 17a, 17b there is a tear initiation 17e which is intended to serve as a hinge for the tear-off tab 18 which is formed between the tear initiations and an opening 19 punched out in the folding box-sealing tab 14a. Next to this opening, the tear-off tab 18 has a grip part 20. The fold line 21 which delimits the folding box wall panel 11a from the folding box-sealing tab 14a extends through the tear-off tab 18. The tear initiations 17c, 17d form a pair of opposite end portions 22, 23 which, as will be explained later, are dimensioned to permit re-sealing through cooperation with punched-out areas 24, 25 in the pair of folding box- sealing tabs 13a, 13b lying over the folding box-sealing tab 14a.
Pourer/sprinkler openings 26 are punched out in the folding box-sealing tab 12 and are placed in such a way that, when the folding box is glued, these openings come to lie under the tear-off tab 18 in the folding box wall panel 11 a. As has been explained earlier, the blank in Figure 1 is intended to be pre-sized in a traditional manner and for this purpose strands of glue 27, 28 are applied in a gluing machine, more precisely strands extending in the machine direction as shown in Figure 1. Thus, in the gluing machine, the folding box adhesive tab 12 is placed against the rear side of the folding box wall panel 11a in Figure 1, whereupon the part tab 12a is also glued to the tab 16a, while the tab 12b, for reasons which will be explained later, is left unglued to the tab 14a.
At the intersections 29a - 29d between fold lines forming the four corners of the assembled folding box, material portions 30a - 30d are left for reasons which will be explained later.
After the blank in Figure 1 has been pre-sized in the manner indicated, in a conventional gluing machine, it is ready for delivery to an assembling and filling installation. The latter can be, for example, of the type which, from a magazine holding pre-sized folding box blanks of the said type, removes these to an intermittent conveyor provided with an assembling device, where the pre-sized plane folding boxes are set up, stations for sealing the bottoms of the folding boxes, optionally with application of a bottom-sealing membrane to the bottom tabs 15a, 15b, 16a, 16b, a station for filling the folding box from the top, and a station for sealing the folding box with the folding box- sealing tabs 13a, 13b and 14a, 14b, and optionally also application of a membrane. In the latter case, the membrane 31 is sealed on the folding box-sealing tabs 13a, 13b and 14b, 12b with these tabs folded out to a horizontal position. Particularly in those applications with a membrane, the material portions 30a - 3d left over contribute to the sealing of the corners and thus to improved leaktightness, in particular powder tightness. The material portions 30a - 30d contribute to powder tightness even when there is no membrane. The openings 26 in the folding box adhesive tab are naturally in direct contact with the product in the folding box, and since the gluing is obtained only with the strands 27, 28 of glue, the product, in the sealed state, would possibly be able to flow out between the tab 12 and the folding box wall panel 11 a to the corners 29a, 29d, but the material portions 30a, 30d effectively prevents such a flow.
Figure 4 shows a filled, sealed packaging folding box produced from the blank in Figure 1. The folding box-sealing tabs 12b, 14 are thus folded in, without being stuck to each other, and the folding box-sealing tab 14b is likewise folded in. The tabs 13a, 13b lie on top of these tabs and they are sealed to each other in the overlap area, for example by heat-sealing of the plastic lining which is normally present on packaging folding boxes of the type in question. Alternatively, a hot-melt bead can be applied. As will be seen from Figure 4, the punched-out areas 24, 25 in the sealing tabs 13a, 13b give access to the grip part 20 of the tear-off tab 18. However, the end portions 22, 23 of this grip part are situated under the respective folding box-sealing tab. The purpose of this is to permit re-sealing of the folding box after the tear-off tab has been torn to the position shown in Figure 6. Re-sealing can thus be done very simply by inserting the end portions 22, 23 under the respective folding box-sealing tab.
Figure 5 shows clearly that the folding box-sealing tabs 12b, 14a are not connected to each other and that the tabs can thus be folded in separately without material stresses arising therein.
The blanks in Figures 2 and 3 are intended to illustrate types of folding box-sealing tabs different from those shown in Figure 1. Thus, the blank in Figure 2 is provided with so-called insert tabs. Since these are generally known in the field in question, no further description of the bank in Figure 2 is needed. The component parts necessary for the pourer/sprinkler arrangement are the same. The blank in Figure 3 shows another type of insert tab, and the arrangement for the re-sealable pourer/sprinkler arrangement is in principle the same as in Figure 1.
The re-sealable tear-off tab 18 has been shown with a hinge part 17e which gives a certain return tendency, and to counteract this return it may be expedient, for example, to provide the grip part 20 with a cold-sealed lining which can be stuck to the folding box wall 11 a during emptying of the contents of the package. This may be particularly advantageous when the tear-off tab is located on the top of the folding box in the finished product.
The broken lines 32 in Figure 1 show a self-adhesive or otherwise secured bit of a strip, e.g. a tape, on that side of the adhesive tab 12 which is intended to be applied against the folding box wall panel 11a. The strip 32 covers the pourer openings 26 and is intended to be removed by the consumer after the tear-off tab 18 has been torn off. The strip increases the leaktightness, if this is necessary, until the consumer opens the packaging for the first time. In addition, the strip reduces uptake of moisture and spillage during transport.
The strip 32 is applied to the adhesive tab 12 before it is secured to the folding box wall panel 11a.
Although the invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that modifications and equivalent embodiments lie within the scope of the attached patent claims.

Claims

Packaging folding box made of cardboard or corresponding material and provided with a pourer/sprinkler arrangement, comprising:

a folding box body with two pairs of opposite folding box walls (10a, 10b; 11 a, 11b) built up from a plane blank provided with a folding box adhesive tab (12), and with the folding box adhesive tab of the blank secured to the inside of the corresponding folding box wall (11a) in order to form the said body,

folding box-sealing tabs (13a, 13b, 14a, 14b; 15a, 15b, 16a, 16b) made in one piece with the said blank at each end of the said body in order to form a further pair of opposite folding box walls, and

a tear-off tab (18) with grip part (20) for exposing at least one pourer/sprinkler opening (26) formed in the folding box adhesive tab (12) and extending in the folding box wall (11a), to which the adhesive tab (12) is secured, over the edge (21) and into an adjoining folding box wall of the said further pair of folding box walls which are formed by the said folding box-sealing tabs (13a, 13b, 14a, 14b), characterized in that:

arranged directly under the corresponding folding box-sealing tab (14a) in which the grip part (20) of the tear-off tab (18) is formed, and without any intermediate material layer, there is a further folding box-sealing tab (12b) which constitutes a continuation of the folding box adhesive tab (12) and is not secured to the folding box-sealing tab (14a) provided with grip part.
Packaging folding box according to Claim 1, characterized in that a pair of opposite folding box-sealing tabs (13a, 13b), placed on top of the said folding box-sealing tab (14a) provided with grip part (20), have punched-out parts (24, 25) which partially expose the grip part.
Packaging folding box according to Claim 2, characterized in that the grip part (20) has a pair of end portions (22, 23) which each lie inside and directly under the limit edge of the punched-out parts (24, 25), even after re-sealing.
Packaging folding box according to Claim 3, characterized in that a membrane (31) tightly sealing the folding box body is secured to the said further folding box-sealing tab (12b) and to the other folding box-sealing tabs (13a, 13b, 14b) without grip parts.
Packaging folding box according to Claim 4, characterized in that a corresponding membrane is also secured to folding box-sealing tabs at the opposite end of the folding box body.
Packaging folding box according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the decoration on the packaging folding box is designed such that the said at least one pourer opening (26) is located, in handling terms, on a side wall of the folding box.
Packaging folding box according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the decoration on the packaging folding box is designed such that the said at least one pourer/sprinkler opening (26) is located, in handling terms, on the top panel of the folding box.
Packaging folding box according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that a removable strip (32), e.g. of tape, is applied to cover the said at least one sprinkler opening in the adhesive tab (12) on that side thereof intended to be applied to the inside of the corresponding folding box wall panel (11a) provided with the tear-off tab (18).