EP1260448B1 - Parallelepipedic package comprising hinged flaps as well as blank for such a package - Google Patents

Abstract

The carton is basically parallelepiped in shape, having two main flaps (15, 45) at one end extending from its two main walls (1, 4). Its two side walls (2, 3) have additional end flaps (6) with curved edges, connected to the main flaps by hinged tongues which hold the main flaps open for filling the carton, e.g. with contents in a separate liner bag. The carton can then be closed by pushing in the tongues and allowing the main flaps to close over the curved edges.

Description

The present invention relates to a form of packaging parallelepipedic having at least one end two flaps articulated by longitudinal edges on longitudinal edges of two opposite first sides of said parallelepiped.

In general, packaging, for example of cardboard, intended for food products, receive sachets containing food products such as cookies, "snacks" or others, and in general, the volume occupied by the packaging is very much higher than that which would be strictly necessary. Only in the case of shape products perfectly defined, for example rectangular biscuits, which can be match the volume of the outer package and the volume of the bag.

When the products do not have a constant shape, and / or when presented loose in the bag, the presence of flaps of folded ends at right angles imposes to leave a height of guard sufficient to avoid damaging the products, particularly when bagging.

We already know packaging with one end a flap folded to form a rounded. The product of the brand MINIDOU of the HENKEL (see Figure 1 below) thus has a flap provided of a dozen transversal grooves that come to bear on two rounded contours of the sides of the package. For this purpose, the sides of the packaging are also slotted in inverted Y so as to be slightly to provide this support function.

• il est peu économe en carton, car la présence du rabat rainé oblige à imbriquer les flans de carton et générer une perte de matière latéralement et aux extrémités des feuilles de carton de grandes dimensions dans lesquels sont découpés les flans, selon les techniques classique de mise en oeuvre dans les techniques de l'emballages ;
• les côtés de l'emballage ne sont pas plans ;
• les côtés de l'emballage étant rentrants, le volume de l'emballage est légèrement réduit, ce qui augmente d'autant la surface de carton nécessaire pour obtenir un volume utile donné.

A package of this type has a number of disadvantages:

• it is not very economical in cardboard, because the presence of the grooved flap requires to nest the cardboard blanks and generate a loss of material laterally and at the ends of the large cardboard sheets in which the blanks are cut, according to conventional techniques of setting implemented in packaging techniques;
• the sides of the packaging are not flat;
• the sides of the packaging being re-entrant, the volume of the packaging is slightly reduced, which increases the amount of cardboard necessary to obtain a given useful volume.

GB-A-1 259 981 discloses a packaging comprising a front face, a rear face and two faces side. The front and the rear face are each provided with flaps front and rear, and each side face is provided with two lateral flaps to straight edges which respectively extend from the front flaps and back to meet at a central point and that extend beyond this central point with grooves up to the front and back. After folding the front and back flaps one over the other, we get a plan overlap by overlapping these flaps which leads to confer to packaging of linear ends in "fishtail".

EP-A-1,055,606 also discloses a package comprising two front and rear faces and two side faces of indeformable structure, because the two ends of this package are linear, being obtained by planar overlapping of similar flaps to that shown for GB-A-1,259,981.

The present invention proposes to avoid at least partially these disadvantages, and for this purpose, it proposes as a basic idea to achieve a hinge for folding major flaps so as to confer a curved shape.

Because two main flaps of equal lengths or neighbors can be implemented, it is easy to make an outline blank outside very close to a rectangle, hence a remarkable saving of material, because there is no need to nest the individual blanks and it is easy to put them in a large sheet of cardboard in which they are cut out.

The invention thus relates to a packaging of form parallelepipedic having at least one end, two flaps the main ones located in the extension of two first lateral faces opposite of said parallelepiped, characterized in that it has two flaps auxiliaries articulated on two opposite second lateral faces of said parallelepiped, said auxiliary flaps having an outline having a a central region which constitutes a free edge of the auxiliary flap and on the other hand, two lateral parts at least partly rounded articulated to a flap itself hinged to a lateral edge of a main flap, the flaps the main ones being folded over each other so that on the one hand, the shutters are folded along the main flaps and on the other hand the main flaps curvature along said side portions of the auxiliary flaps.

The invention possibly allows a settlement of the products in the package, in the deteriorate.

The ends of the main flaps come advantageously covering at least part of the region central rounded contour.

According to a first variant, at least one component is constituted by a curvilinear triangle that occupies the entire space between a so-called side portion and a side edge of the main flap.

According to another variant, the shutter has one or more legs that connect a said lateral portion of the rounded contour and a lateral edge of the main flap.

According to a preferred embodiment, the lateral parts of the auxiliary flaps have a cut-out curved region that extends to at least one end by a straight region grooved or cut into dashed.

The packaging is advantageously made from a blank unique.

The invention also relates to a package of the aforementioned type which has a bag containing bulk products whose volume occupation is at least partly optimized by a force exerted by the folding of the main flaps.

The invention finally relates to a blank for making a package of parallelepipedal shape comprising at least one end, two main flaps located in the extension of two first faces opposite sides of said parallelepiped, characterized in that it has at minus one end two auxiliary flaps hinged on two second opposite side faces of said parallelepiped, said auxiliary flaps having an outline having on the one hand a central region which constitutes a free edge of the auxiliary flap, and secondly two lateral parts at least in rounded part, articulated to a flap itself hinged on a lateral edge a main flap.

• la figure 1 représente un emballage correspondant à l'art antérieur mentionné ci-dessus,
• la figure 2a représente un premier mode de réalisation d'un flan en carton destiné à la mise en oeuvre de l'invention, la figure 2b étant un détail d'une variante de la figure 2a ;
• les figures 3a à 3d illustrent la réalisation d'un emballage selon l'invention à partir du flan de la figure 2 collé à plat, la figure 3e représentant l'emballage de profil pour illustré la consommation de carton par rapport à un emballage rectangulaire de mêmes dimensions ; et
• la figure 4 représente un deuxième mode de réalisation préféré, d'un flan en carton destiné à la mise en oeuvre de l'invention.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent on reading the following description, given by way of non-limiting example, in conjunction with the drawings in which:

• FIG. 1 represents a package corresponding to the prior art mentioned above,
• FIG. 2a shows a first embodiment of a cardboard blank intended for the implementation of the invention, FIG. 2b being a detail of a variant of FIG. 2a;
• FIGS. 3a to 3d illustrate the embodiment of a packaging according to the invention from the blank of FIG. 2 glued flat, FIG. 3e representing the profile packaging for illustrating the consumption of cardboard with respect to a rectangular packaging of same dimensions; and
• FIG. 4 represents a second preferred embodiment of a cardboard blank intended for the implementation of the invention.

The package of FIG. 1 has two main faces 1 ₁ and two lateral faces 1 ₄ . A flap January ₂ whose inner face is provided with grooves January ₈ is folded around one end of the package and is sealed at one end 1 ₃ . It rests on the rounded ends ₁₇ of the lateral faces ₁₄ . To allow this support, the lateral faces 1 ₄ are slotted longitudinally in 1 ₅ and in 1 ₆ to form an inverted Y, so that they are not flat, but reentrant.

The blank, for example cardboard, shown in Figure 2a has 4 lateral faces referenced 1, 2, 3 and 4, intended by folding to constitute the body of the packaging. Face 2 is hinged to face 1 along of a fold line 12, 12 'and to the face 4 along a fold line 42, 42'. The face 3 is articulated to the face 1 by a fold line 14, 14 '. Two of opposite faces 1 and 4 are extended by principal flaps referenced 15, 16, 45 and 46 which can optionally be articulated, to the main faces corresponding 1 and 4 by folding or precut lines referenced 17, 18, 47 and 48.

The other two opposite lateral faces 2 and 3 comprise at each of their ends 6 auxiliary flaps hinged to the faces 2 and 3 side by fold lines or precut lines 21, 22, and 31, 32.

Outside this fold or precut line, the auxiliary flaps 6 have a rounded contour, for example circular, elliptical or parabolic, etc ... which has two lateral regions 67 which are articulated at least in part by a folding crease or dashed cut to a flap 7 which is itself articulated to one of the flaps 15, 16, 45 and 46 by a fold or precut line 12 ', 14', 42 'located in the extension of the lines 12, 14 and 42. A creasing can be made by a continuous line or not on a part of the thickness of the cardboard. The Central region 61 may also be rounded in shape. She can also have another shape (see for example Figure 2b 61 '). With regard to the lateral end face 3, we will notice the leg 5 which extends over the entire width of the blank and which is connected to the face main 3 by a line of folding or precut 52 which extends into 52 'to allow the articulation of the corresponding flap 7.

It will be noted in a variant that this gluing lug 5 could be carried as well by the edge 42 of the lateral face 4 and flaps main 45 and 46.

In the case where the flaps 15, 16, 45, 46 do not have any folding line 17, 18, 47, 48, it is considered by definition that the delimitation between the lateral faces and the said flaps is constituted by the extension folding or precut lines 21, 22, 31, 32.

For the realization of the packaging, the blank is presented flat (Figure 3a), the gluing tab 5 being secured to the side face 4 and the main flaps 45 and 46.

The next step is, using a conventional cartoner, to format the packaging which is thus in the deployed position shown in FIG. 3b, which makes it possible to introduce in the sense of arrow F a bag 50 containing products 51.

Then, and as shown in Figure 3c, when the flaps 15 and 45 are folded towards each other to close the packet, they lead, through the shutters 7 (or the one or more tabs 7 '), the auxiliary flaps 6 which are then folded slightly towards the inside of the package, as illustrated by the arrows F ', until the flaps 7 or the legs 7 'are pressed against the main flaps 15 and 45, which causes the main flaps 15 and 45 to bend under the action flaps 7 (or tabs 7 ') to fit the contour of the fold lines of crease or dotted cutout 67. Then, finishing the drawdown main flaps 15 and 45, these, preferentially follow the free edge 61 of the auxiliary flaps 6, which gives an appearance closed to the packaging. The curvature of the region 67 is preferably chosen. depending on the dimension lo (see Figure 2a and 2b) to avoid a constraint of cardboard. This facilitates the passage through the machine which can be done on a classic cartoner. Openings 8 possibly made to the birth of the flap 7 make it easier to refold while avoiding the formation at this location of a cardboard bead.

The package is closed as shown in Figure 3d and a sealing can be achieved for example on line 60.

The force applied to the main flaps can be chosen from to produce a settlement of the products 51 in the bag 50 without these are deteriorated.

After closing, the main flaps 15 and 45 can come edge to edge or they may have some overlap. It is advantageous for the economy of material that the flaps 15 and 45 have the same length. Figure 3e illustrates the saving of cardboard made for a carton packing of length L and width I between a package classic rectangular contour I and contour II packaging, according to the invention. For the packaging of bags these two packagings have the same useful volume. The developed width of the cardboard blank corresponds to the half-perimeter of rectangle I for rectangular packaging, and, for the invention, at the half-perimeter of the curved contour II, less than half-perimeter of rectangle I.

There is also saving of cardboard compared to the solution illustrated in Figure 1.

The invention can be implemented at both ends of the packaging, which also has the advantage of conferring a form original, or only at one end of the package, the other end remaining conventional with for example a 90 ° folding of flaps provided for this effect.

The embodiment of Figure 4 is distinguished by the fact that the lateral regions 160 of the auxiliary flaps 106 have a region curved 167 which is cut continuously over the entire thickness of the carton (or pre-cut for example by deep creasing or by cuts in dotted line) and at least one straight region 168 and / or 165 which is folded, or slotted by a continuous line or not on a part of the thickness or provided with dotted cuts.

The package comprises main faces 100 and 104, side faces 102 and 103, and pairs of main flaps 115, 145 of a and 116, 146 on the other hand (in the case of a rounding at each end of the packaging).

The flaps 107 are articulated to the main flaps 115, 116, 145 and 146 by a folding crease or dotted line. Optional crease lines (or dotted lines) 171 and / or 172 can be provided to facilitate the shaping of the flaps key.

The volume of the packaging is made as Figures 3a to 3d. When folding the main flaps 115, 145 and optionally 116, 146, the cut or precut curved regions 167 open slightly which allows the main flaps to marry the shape without constraining the carton.

Claims (13)

1. Parallelepipedal packaging comprising, at least at one end, two main flaps (15, 16, 45, 46) which are located in the extension of two first opposing lateral faces (1, 4) of the parallelepiped, characterised in that it has, at least at one end, two additional flaps (6) which are articulated at two second opposing lateral faces (2, 3) of the parallelepiped, the additional flaps (6) having a contour which has, on the one hand, a central region (61) which constitutes a free edge of the additional flap and, on the other hand, two lateral portions (67) which are at least partially rounded and which are articulated to a flap (7, 7') which is itself articulated at a lateral edge (12', 42') of a main flap (15, 16, 45, 46), the main flaps (15, 16, 45, 46) being folded over each other in such a manner that, on the one hand, the flaps (7, 7') are folded over along the main flaps (15, 16, 45, 46) and, on the other hand, the main flaps (15, 16, 45, 46) curve inwards along the portions (67) of the contour (61, 67) of the additional flaps (6), and in that the ends of the main flaps overlap over at least a portion of the central region (61) of the contour of the additional flaps (6).
2. Packaging according to claim 1, characterised in that the central regions (61) are rounded.
3. Packaging according to either claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that at least one flap is constituted by a curved triangle (7') which occupies the space between a lateral portion (67) and a lateral edge (12', 42') of the main flap (15, 16, 45, 46).
4. Packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that at least one flap has one or more tabs (7') which connect(s) a lateral portion (67) of the rounded contour and a lateral edge (12', 42') of the main flap (15, 16, 45, 46).
5. Packaging according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the lateral portions (160) of the additional flaps have an inwardly curved cut or pre-cut region (167) which is extended, at least at one end, by a folded, grooved or perforated region (165, 168).
6. Packaging according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it is produced from a single blank.
7. Packaging according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it has a sachet (50) which contains loose products (51) and the space required by which is at least partially optimised by means of a force which is applied by the folding of the main flaps.
8. Packaging according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it comprises two main flaps (15, 45; 115, 145) which are arranged at only one end of the packaging.
9. Blank for producing a parallelepipedal packaging which comprises, at least at one end, two main flaps (15, 16, 45, 46) which are located in the extension of two first opposing lateral faces (1, 4) of the parallelepiped, characterised in that it has, at least at one end, two additional flaps (6) which are articulated at two second opposing lateral faces (2, 3) of the parallelepiped, the additional flaps (6) having a contour which has, on the one hand, a central region (61) which constitutes a free edge of the additional flap and, on the other hand, two lateral portions (67) which are at least partially rounded and which are articulated to a flap (7, 7') which is itself articulated at a lateral edge (12', 42') of a main flap (15, 16, 45, 46).
10. Blank according to claim 9, characterised in that at least one flap is constituted by a curved triangle (7') which occupies the space between a lateral portion (67) and a lateral edge (12', 42') of the main flap (15, 16, 45, 46).
11. Blank according to either claim 9 or claim 10, characterised in that at least one flap has one or more tabs (7') which connect(s) a lateral portion (67) of the rounded contour and a lateral edge (12', 42') of the main flap (15, 16, 45, 46).
12. Blank according to either claim 9 or claim 10, characterised in that the lateral portions (160) of the additional flaps have an inwardly curved cut or pre-cut region (167) which is extended, at least at one end, by a folded, grooved or perforated region (165, 168).
13. Blank according to any one of claims 9 to 12, characterised in that the central regions (61) are rounded.

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