EP2326570A1

EP2326570A1 - Ductile pack

Info

Publication number: EP2326570A1
Application number: EP09782826A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Anthony Fraser Snyder; Bodo-Werner Lutzig; Vincenzo Disavino
Original assignee: Philip Morris Products SA
Current assignee: Philip Morris Products SA
Priority date: 2008-09-10
Filing date: 2009-09-09
Publication date: 2011-06-01
Also published as: MX2011002200A; BRPI0918902A2; AR073566A1; WO2010029110A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a pack (1) for consumer items (5), comprising an outer pack (10), wherein the outer pack (10) comprises a sleeve (12, 14, 16, 18) and a pair of opposed end faces (20, 32) defined by transverse edges (22) of the sleeve, wherein the sleeve (12, 14, 16, 18) is erected from a single blank of sheet material (100) by folding, wherein the single blank of sheet material is a ductile material (100).

Description

DUCTILE PACK

The present invention relates to a pack for consumer items. The pack according to the invention is particularly suitable for elongate smoking articles, for example cigarettes, cigarillos and cigars.

It is known to package consumer items in containers formed from folded laminar blanks.

The laminar blanks may be made from any suitable sheet material, such as cardboard, metal or plastic. Graphics and text are typically applied to the surfaces of the containers, in order to communicate information to the consumer, such as brand, advertising, promotional or product information.

Packs for smoking articles are typically substantially in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped with two major side walls and two minor side walls connected along right-angled longitudinal edges. Before use, a given number of smoking articles are housed within the pack, for example 20. While the smoking articles maintain their collation inside the pack when the pack is full or when only a few of the smoking articles have been removed. The emptier the pack becomes, the more the smoking articles tend to move inside the pack due to the additional space created by the missing smoking articles. This may for example result in the loss of tobacco through the open ends of the smoking articles. Additionally, this may be inconvenient as a pack being only half or quarterly full requires the same amount of space as a completely full pack.

It would be desirable to produce a pack for consumer items that is adaptable to the number of consumer items housed within the pack.

According to the invention, a pack for consumer items is provided, the pack comprising an outer pack and an inner liner, wherein the outer pack comprises a sleeve and a bottom wall and wherein the bottom wall depends from the sleeve, wherein the outer pack is made from a single blank of sheet material by folding, and wherein the sheet material is a ductile material.

Throughout the specification the term "ductile material" is used to refer to a material that can readily be shaped with little force at room temperature. A ductile material has a high plasticity, a high deformation memory, and a low elasticity while maintaining its structural integrity.

The term "little force" refers to forces that may be applied by a human without the use of tools or machinery but with bare hands. An example for a ductile material according to the invention is a thin sheet of metal for example gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, soft iron or aluminum, for example aluminum foil. Examples for a non-ductile material are cardboard or paper. While it is possible to shape cardboard or paper with little force at room temperature for example to fold or crease, the structural integrity of the material is not maintained. Instead, the fibres in the paper of cardboard break irrevocably. Materials which have the ability to hold their new conformation on shaping are said to exhibit dead-fold properties. Therefore, a ductile material according to the invention has very good dead-fold properties. The term "dead fold property" as used herein is defined as a measure of the sheet materials ability to retain its shape or fold or crease permanently once it is folded or wrapped about an item and does not spring back to an unfolded state. Thus a measure of the degree of such dead fold behavior is the magnitude of the sheet materials force relaxation. To exhibit dead-fold behavior a sheet material should have a high force relaxation of

2 to 40 percent. With regard to the current invention the dead fold property of the sheet material is measured as the angle that the sheet material springs back after being folded on itself. Specifically, the dead fold measurement involves the steps of

- preparing a 2,54 mm x 100 mm piece of sheet material;

- bending (without creasing) the piece of sheet material onto itself by 180 degrees;

- evenly placing a weight of 50 grams for 10 seconds on to the sheet material and the bend such that the two thirds of the weight rests on the sheet material such that a crease is formed;

- weighing down the sheet material for 10 seconds;

- removing the weight;

- leaving the sheet material to relax for 30 seconds

- measuring the opening angle of the fold of the sheet material to the closest 5 degree angle

- repeating with 10 samples and calculating the average of the opening angle.

The dead fold angle of a typical inner liner comprising 70 grams per square meter of paper that is used as an inner wrapper for smoking articles is about 60 degrees. Where the weight of 50 grams is not sufficient to create a crease in the sheet material, for example due to the stiffness of the sheet material, the measurement is repeated with an increase of weight in steps of 50 grams until a crease is formed. Then the weight is recorded and the angle is measured. Where a sheet material does not revert to its original shape already after the step of bending (without creasing) the piece of sheet material onto itself by 180 degrees, the sheet material is considered to be a ductile material according to the invention. The technical properties of the ductile material advantageously allow the reduction of the size of the pack after one or more of the consumer items have been removed from the pack. For example the consumer items are elongate articles like smoking articles such as cigarettes. After removing one or more of the smoking articles, the excess sleeve may be folded onto itself, folded around the remainder of the smoking articles or formed into a roll, for example as illustrated in Figures 2a, 2b and 2c. This advantageously maintains the parallel alignment of the smoking articles and reduces the space that the remaining smoking articles can occupy. Due to the high plasticity and deformation memory of the ductile material, the ductile material will substantially not revert to its original shape but will permanently assume the new, smaller shape. Due to the material properties of the ductile material, the reshaped pack with smaller size will still provide protection to the consumer articles inside the pack. Where the excess sleeve is folded for example as illustrated in the Figures 2a, 2b and 2c, the structural strength of the pack may even be increased through the additional folds, roll or layers of sheet material.

Furthermore, due to the material properties of the ductile material, the reshaping of the pack may be performed with the consumer items inside without damaging the consumer items. Where the consumer items are elongate smoking articles, the elongate smoking articles may aid in the reshaping of the container due to the alignment of the axis of the smoking article and the plane of the sleeve.

A further advantage of the ductile material is, that the emptied pack may be easily compressed, folded or crushed into a small size to reduce the volume of the packaging material, for example in pockets, hand bags, ashtrays, litter bins and generally in the waste stream.

Preferably, the single blank of sheet material is metallic or comprises a metallic layer. The gloss properties of a metallic material permit interesting reflecting visual effects.

Preferably, the outer pack is substantially in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped such that the sleeve comprises a pair of opposed major side walls and a pair of opposed minor side walls. The major side walls have the same or a larger surface than the minor side walls. Packs with this shape are often referred to as "soft packs" due their lower structural strength compared to packs with an additional top wall like, for example, hinge lid packs. In contrast to conventional soft packs, a soft pack according to the invention surprises with an improved structural strength due to the forces that are required to shape the ductile material. Additionally, for example aluminum has a weight per square meter that is about 2.7 times higher than that of paper. A soft pack made from a laminate sheet of aluminum and paper will therefore exhibit a higher weight than a conventional soft pack of similar thickness of the sheet material. This gives the soft pack according to the invention a more solid and heavy feel than a conventional soft pack.

As the packs according to the invention are erected by folding, existing standard machinery may be employed to manufacture the packs simply by replacing standard cardboard blanks with the ductile sheet material. This allows for a high speed production of the packs according to the invention on existing standard machinery.

Preferably, the single blank of sheet material comprises an aluminum layer with a thickness of between about 0.010 mm and about 0.080 mm. Aluminum is particularly suitable due to the ductile properties, machinability and the relative low cost. It has been found, that aluminum sheet material with a thickness of up to about 0.080 mm is machinable with most existing standard packaging material used to make packs from cardboard without changes to the machinery. It has been found, that a thickness of the aluminum layer of greater than 0.010 mm gives the material the desired ductile properties. Depending on the application, a greater thickness of the aluminum layer may be desired. More preferably, the thickness of the aluminum layer is greater than 0.010 mm. Most preferably, the thickness of the aluminum layer is greater than 0.015 mm. Preferably, the sheet material comprises a paper layer laminated to the aluminum layer, the paper layer having a thickness of between about 20 grams per square meter and about 150 grams per square meter. The lamination of an additional paper layer improves the resistance of the ductile material, for example against tearing. This improves the handling of the blank of ductile material in the packaging machinery. The weight of the paper is chosen such, that the ductile properties of the aluminum are substantially maintained in the laminate of aluminum and paper. Preferably, the aluminum layer remains on the outside of the outer pack while the paper layer is on the inside of the pack.

Preferably, the ductile material allows for embossing depth from about 0.005 mm to about 0.300 mm for a sheet material with a thickness of between about 0.010 mm and about 0.080 mm. This is advantageous for the formation of high resolution embossed structures like holograms, logos, structured patterns or other design elements.

Preferably, the sheet material has a dead fold angle of between 0 degrees and about 30 degrees, more preferably the sheet material has a dead fold angle of between 0 degrees and about 5 degrees. In addition, the ductile material may comprise a third or more layers of paper lacquer or print or a ductile material like aluminum.

Preferably the pack is reclosable. For example, the pack comprises a reclosable label that may be reattached to the outer pack after removing a quantity of consumer items from the pack. Reclosing the pack advantageously improves the freshness preservation of the consumer items inside the pack.

Packs according to the invention may be overwrapped in a known manner with any suitable known material or combination of materials including, but not limited to, cellophane, polymeric films of, for example, polyethylene or oriented polypropylene, metallised polymeric films and laminated polymeric films. Preferably, packs according to the invention are shrink wrapped with a transparent overwrapper. More preferably, packs according to the invention are shrink wrapped with a transparent overwrapper of polyethylene or polypropylene film.

Packs according to the invention may be overwrapped with overwrappers including one or more tear tapes. The one or more tear tapes may extend in a transverse or longitudinal direction around the perimeter of the pack.

Packs according to the invention may be used to house any type of consumer items. For example, packs according to the invention may be used to house smoking articles including, but not limited to, conventional lit-end cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, heatable cigarettes (for example cigarettes of the type disclosed in US-A-5,711 ,081 ) and cigarettes for use with electrical smoking systems (for example cigarettes of the type disclosed in US-A-5,388,594).

Through an appropriate choice of the dimensions thereof, packs according to the invention may be designed to house a total of, for example, ten, fifteen sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one or twenty-five smoking articles. Smoking articles housed in packs according to the invention may be arranged in different collations, depending on their total number.

Containers according to the present invention may have one or more right-angled longitudinal edges, one or more right-angled transverse edges, one or more rounded longitudinal edges, one or more rounded transverse edges, one or more bevelled longitudinal edges, one or more bevelled transverse edges, or any suitable combination thereof. Preferably, the longitudinal edges of the contacting walls of the two packs are right-angled, such that the container has a smooth side where the edges of the two packs abut. The inner liner of packs according to the invention preferably is formed from a substantially air impermeable material. In a preferred embodiment, the inner liner is sealed to form a substantially airtight wrapped bundle of smoking articles.

The invention will be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a perspective view soft pack according to the invention;

Figure 2a to 2c show perspective views of the pack shown in Figure 1 where some of the content of the pack has been removed and the size of the pack has been reduced according to the invention.

The pack 1 comprises three layers of packaging material. The first layer of packaging material is the inner liner 30 that is wrapped around a bundle of cigarettes 5. The second layer of packaging material is the outer pack 10 that encloses the inner liner 30 on five sides. The third layer of packaging material is a transparent overwrapper (not shown) that encloses the outer pack 10 and the inner liner 30. The outer pack comprises a sleeve 12, 14, 16, 18 comprising two major side walls, that is the front wall 12 and the back wall 14 and two minor side walls, that is the left side wall 16 and the right side wall 18. The outer pack further comprises a bottom wall 20. At the top edge 22 of the sleeve 12, 14, 16, 18 is an opening. Through the opening the top side 32 of the inner liner 30 is accessible. A label 40 covers the inner liner 30 partly. This label may be used to reclose the pack. Alternatively, the label may be a tax stamp. The outer pack 10 is made from a ductile material 100. The ductile material 100 is a laminate comprising of an outer aluminum layer and an inner paper layer. For the outer aluminum layer the preferred thickness is between about 0.010 mm and about 0.080 mm. The inner paper layer of the laminate has a paperweight of between about 20 grams per square meter and about 150 grams per square meter.

Due to the ductile properties of the ductile material 100, the size of the outer pack 10 is readily adaptable to the number of smoking articles 5 inside the pack 1. For example, after removing a number of smoking articles 5 from the pack 1 the empty part of the pack 1 may be for example folded into folds 13 as shown in Figure 2a, rolled into a tight roll as shown in Figure 2b, or folded around the remainder of the smoking articles 5 as shown in Figure 2c. Due to the deformation memory of the ductile material 100 the reshaped outer pack 2, 3, 4 remains in the reduced size. While the invention has been exemplified above with respect to a cup pack, it will be appreciated that packs according to the invention may alternatively be hinge-lid packs, slide and shell packs, shoulder packs or any other packs known in the art.

Packs according to the invention may advantageously be produced using existing machinery for producing known cardboard packs following no or only minor modifications thereto.

Claims

1. A pack (1 ) for consumer items (5), comprising an outer pack (10) and an inner liner (30), wherein the outer pack (10) comprises a sleeve (12, 14, 16, 18) and a bottom wall (20) and wherein the bottom wall (20) depends from the sleeve (12, 14, 16, 18), wherein the outer pack (10) is made from a single blank of sheet material (100) by folding, and wherein the sheet material is a ductile material (100).

2. A pack (1 ) according to any of the preceding claims wherein the single blank of sheet material (100) comprises an aluminum layer (1 1 ) with a thickness of between about 0.010 mm and about 0.080 mm.

3. A pack (1 ) according to claim 2 wherein the single blank of sheet material (100) comprises a paper layer (19) laminated to the aluminum layer (11 ), the paper layer (19) having a weight of between about 20 grams per square meter and about 150 grams per square meter.

4. A pack (1 ) according to any of the preceding claims wherein the single blank of sheet material (100) has a weight of between about 35 grams per square meter and about 350 grams per square meter

5. A pack (1 ) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the sheet material has a dead fold angle of between 0 degrees and about 30 degrees.

6. A pack according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the sheet material has a dead fold angle of between 0 degrees and about 5 degrees.

7. A pack (1 ) according to any preceding claim comprising elongate consumer articles (5).

8. A pack (1 ) according to any preceding claim comprising an overwrapper.

9. A pack (1 ) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the outer pack (10) is reclosable.