EP3107831B1

EP3107831B1 - Rigid package with hinged lid

Info

Publication number: EP3107831B1
Application number: EP15701835.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Fiorenzo Draghetti
Original assignee: Gima TT SpA
Current assignee: Gima TT SpA
Priority date: 2014-02-21
Filing date: 2015-01-12
Publication date: 2017-09-20
Anticipated expiration: 2035-01-12
Also published as: EP3107831A1; PT3107831T; ES2645291T3; RU2668196C2; CN105980265A; KR20160124095A; PL3107831T3; CN105980265B; WO2015124974A1; RU2016125786A

Description

Field of application

The present invention relates to a rigid package with a hinged lid and to a corresponding packaging method.
In the following description reference is made, for the sake of convenience, to a rigid cigarette package with hinged lid, without in any way limiting the present invention in its general scope.

Prior art

Normally a rigid cigarette package with hinged lid includes an internal wrapper that encloses a bundle of cigarettes and an external rigid container that houses the internal wrapper.
It is common practice, to optimize the amount of space made available by the package, to make an internal wrapper that is tightly enclosed by the external container, i.e. the external container is completely occupied by the bundle of cigarettes contained in the internal wrapper.
In case of a reduced amount of cigarettes it is then usual practice to reduce the size of the packages also.
One problem of rigid cigarette packages of reduced dimensions consists in the fact that the space that remains available on the outside surface is likewise reduced, so that also the amount of information that can be presented on the outside surfaces of such reduced-size packages will be limited. In addition, in countries where there is a legal obligation to dedicate a certain minimal space to health warnings, it may be that packages of reduced dimensions do not offer the minimally required surface area and also that there is insufficient room to insert other desired information.
US-A-4850482 discloses a rigid package for smoking articles designed so as to securely hold a bundle of cigarettes smaller than standard size in a (standard size) cigarette box that is larger than would be necessary.
When a box is made with a bundle of cigarettes occupying less space than available, free space remains, so that it is necessary that the bundle of cigarettes is as firmly contained as possible in order to avoid deterioration of the cigarettes.
The technical problem at the base of the present invention is therefore that of designing a rigid package for smoking articles, in particular cigarettes, that solves the inconveniences of the prior art described above, and in particular that allows for the firm containment of a bundle of cigarettes that occupies a smaller volume of space with respect to the external container, without compromising the rigidity of the package itself, and all within the context of a simple and rational constructive solution.
The aim of the present invention is that of meeting the above needs and at the same time overcoming the inconveniences described above with reference to the prior art.

Summary of the invention

This aim is obtained by a rigid package for smoking articles, in accordance with claim 1 of the present invention.
The dependent claims describe preferred and particularly advantageous embodiments of the package according to the invention.
Furthermore, this aim is also obtained by a packaging method to make a rigid package of the previously defined type.
Further characteristics and advantages will become apparent from the detailed description to follow, of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of the present invention with reference to the figures included as non-limiting examples.

Brief description of the figures

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a rigid package for smoking articles with the lid open, according to the present invention;
Figure 2 shows a side view of the package of figure 1;
Figure 3 shows a top view of the package of figure 1, with the lid fully open;
Figure 4 shows a perspective view of the interior of the package of figure 1 with the wrapper removed and the cigarettes visible;
Figure 5 shows a blank for making the collar of tha package of figure 1.

Detailed description

With reference to figures 1-3, the reference number 1 is used to generally indicate a rigid package for smoking articles, in particular cigarettes. The package 1 comprises an external container 2 made of stiff paper or cardboard, with a cup-like shape and an internal wrapper 3 housed inside the container 2. The internal wrapper 3 encloses the bundle 4 of cigarettes of a parallelepiped shape.
The external container 2 presents an open upper extremity 21 and it is equipped with a lid 22, having a cup-like shape and being hinged to the container 2 along a hinge 23 to rotate, with respect to the container 2, between an open position and a closed position of the open upper extremity 21.
The lid 22, when it is in its closed position, lends a rectangular parallelepiped shape to the external container 2 with a top wall and a bottom wall, parallel to and opposite each other, two large lateral walls, parallel to and opposite each other, and two small lateral walls 26, also parallel to and opposite each other. In particular a large lateral wall defines a front wall 24 of the external container 2, whereas the other large lateral wall defines a rear wall 25 of the external container 2. Between the lateral walls 26 and the front 24 and rear 25 walls four longitudinal edges are defined, in this example right-angled, whereas between the top and bottom walls and the front 24, rear 25 and lateral walls 26, eight transverse edges in all are defined.
The package 1 further comprises a rigid collar 5 (i.e. made of cardboard or stiff paper), which is folded around the internal wrapper 3 to cover at least partially an upper portion of the internal wrapper 3 and which is attached (usually by means of gluing) to the external container 2 or to the internal wrapper 3 itself or even to both the internal wrapper 3 and to the external container 2. The internal wrapper 3 can in turn be attached by means of gluing to the external container 2 at a point where the collar 5 that is placed between the internal wrapper 3 and the external container 2 is not present. The collar 5 partially projects from the open upper extremity 21 (together with the internal wrapper 3 that it partially covers) and involves a corresponding internal surface of the lid 22 when that lid 22 is placed in the closed position. Preferably the collar 5 has a pair of barbs 6 that project laterally to engage the lateral walls of the lid 22 in order to keep the lid 22 in the closed position.
Advantageously between the internal wrapper 3 surrounded by the collar 5 and the external container 2 there is an empty cavity 7.
In practice, the internal wrapper 3 is smaller than the external container 2.
The internal wrapper 3 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape with a front wall 31, which is located facing the front wall 24 of the external container 2; two lateral walls 32, located laterally with respect to the front wall 31 and facing the lateral walls 26 of the external container 2; a top wall 33, which, when the lid 22 is in its closed position, is placed facing the top wall of the external container 2; and a rear wall, which faces the cavity 7.
The collar 5 is placed between the internal wrapper 3 and the external container 2.
The collar 5 comprises a front wall 51, which is internally placed in contact with the front wall 31 of the internal wrapper 3 and externally placed in contact with the front wall 24 of the external container 2; two lateral walls 52, which are located laterally with regard to the front wall 51, are externally arranged to be in contact with the lateral walls 26 of the external container 2 and internally in contact with the lateral walls 32 of the internal wrapper 3; a rear wall 54, which is internally placed in contact with the rear wall of the internal wrapper 3 and externally located facing the cavity 7; two pairs of tabs 55, each pair departing from the two lateral walls 32 of the collar 5 in a direction that is parallel to the respective lateral wall 26 itself and then projecting therefrom, the edges of the tabs 55 coming into contact with the interior side of the rear wall 25 of the external container 2.
In practice the collar 5 surrounds the internal wrapper 3 containing the cigarettes entirely and the tabs 55 allow the rigid collar to be distanced from the rear wall 25 of the external container 2 in order to create the cavity 7.
The cavity 7 is the free space that is created between the rear wall 25 of the external container 2 and the rear wall 54 of the collar 5.
In other words, the amount of space dedicated to the bundle 4 of cigarettes is less than the overall volume available in the external container 2, this space in fact being defined by the collar 5 according to the present invention.
More particularly the distance between the rear wall 25 of the external container 2 and the rear wall 54 of the collar remains fixed as a result of the tabs 55 of the collar 5.
Since in the illustrated embodiment the rear wall 54 of the collar 5 is in direct contact with the rear wall of the internal wrapper 3, reference to the cavity 7 can be taken to refer either to the rear wall 54 of the collar 5 or to the rear wall of the internal wrapper.
The rear wall 54 of the collar 5 is placed parallel to the rear wall of the internal wrapper 3, and parallel to the rear wall of the external container 2, whereas the tabs 55 extend perpendicularly to these rear walls.
Thanks to this positioning the internal wrapper 3 cannot move inside the larger external container 2 and the collar 5 holds the internal wrapper 3 firmly and well-positioned inside the external container 2.
Naturally it is also possible to have a different position for the internal wrapper 3 with respect tot he external container 2.
For example, the cavity 7 could equally be obtained with reference to the front wall, between the front wall 51 of the collar 5 and the rear wall 24 of the external container 2.
In order to hold the bundle of cigarettes firmly inside the internal wrapper 3 and to ensure that the strengthening of the package 1 is improved, in accordance with the present invention the rear wall 54 of the collar 5 consists of two lateral tabs 54a, 54b that come together along the respective end tabs 58a, 58b folded and joined to form a fin 56 located perpendicularly to the plane defined by the rear wall 54 of the collar 5.
The fin 56 is placed between the two pairs of tabs 55 and with its edge in contact with the inner side of the rear wall 25 of the external container 2, so that the rear wall 54 of the collar 5 is distanced from the rear wall 25 of the external container 2 and the whole package is strengthened.
Basically the fin 56 divides the cavity 7 in two parts 7a and 7b with the fin 56 in-between.
In a preferred embodiment the fin 56 is held in a fixed position by means of a pair of teeth 57 placed in contact with and to the sides of the fin 56, wherein each tooth 56 is obtained by cut applied to a respective lateral end flap 58a, 58b of the rear wall 54 of the collar 5.
As illustrated in figure 5 the collar 5 is made of a single blank 50 that is folded around the internal wrapper 3. The blank 50 comprises: a main panel 51' which forms the front wall 51 of the collar 5; two panels 52' to form the lateral walls 52 of the collar 5, placed on opposite sides of the main panel 51' and divided from the main panel 51' by two longitudinal folding lines 60; and two panels 54a', 54b' that form the two tabs 54a, 54b that form the rear wall 54 of the collar 5, each located alongside the panel 52' and separated from the panel 52' by a longitudinal folding line 61. Furthermore the blank 50 has U-shaped notches 55' applied to the two panels 54a', 54b' that form the rear wall 54 of the collar 5, each of these notches 55' is made in order to create the tab 55 by rotating the portion cut along the longitudinal folding line 61 that separates the panels 52' from the panels 54a', 54b'. The blank further presents two panels 58a', 58b' that constitute the two end flaps 58a, 58b which together form the fin 56, each placed next to panel 54a' and panel 54b' respectively and separated from these two panels by a longitudinal folding line 62.
The teeth are obtained by applying a U-shaped cut 57' to each of the two panels 54a', 54b' which form the two tabs 54a, 54b that form the rear wall of the collar 5. This U-shaped cut 57' is applied near the folding lines 62 that separate the two panels 54a', 54b' that constitute the two tabs 54, 54b that form the rear wall of the collar 5, from the panels 58a', 58b' that form the fin 56. The internal U-shaped cut portion forms the tooth 57 when it is folded along a folding line 63 located perpendicular to the folding lines that divide the various panels from each other, as can clearly be seen in figure 5.
As will be appreciated from this description the rigid package for smoking articles according to the present invention makes it possible to meet the needs and overcome the drawbacks discussed in the introductory part of the present description with reference to the prior art.
In fact it is possible to use an external container of standard dimensions to contain also a smaller number of cigarettes, while at the same time preserving an ordered and functional placement inside an internal wrapper of appropriate dimensions, and held firmly inside a larger external container by a collar made according to the present invention.
Obviously, in order to meet contingent and specific needs a person skilled in the art can apply numerous modifications and variations to the findings disclosed, all of which are contained by the scope of protection of the invention as defined by the following claims.

Claims

Rigid package for smoking articles comprising:
a bundle (4) of articles;

an internal wrapper (3) that encloses the bundle (4) of articles;

a rigid external container (2) that accommodates the internal wrapper (3) and that presents an open extremity (21), said rigid external container (2) comprising two opposite lateral walls (26), a front wall (24) and a rear wall (25) opposite each other; and

a rigid collar (5) that partially projects from the open extremity (21) of the external container (2), said collar (5) being placed between the internal wrapper (3) and the external container (2), wrapped around in contact with said internal wrapper (3), an empty cavity (7) being formed between the collar (5) and the external container (2),

characterized in that:
the collar (5) comprises at least a pair of opposing tabs (55) being in direct contact with the respective internal side of the lateral walls (26) of the external container (2) and with the edges of the tabs (55) in contact with the internal side of the rear wall (25) of the external container (2) to distance the internal wrapper (3) wrapped by the collar (5) from the rear wall of the external container (2) and block the internal wrapper (3) in a fixed position in the external container (2), and in that said collar (5) has a rear wall (54) made from two lateral flaps (54a, 54b) that join along their respective end flaps (58a, 58b) which are folded and joined so that a fin (56) is formed extending perpendicular to the plane defined by the rear wall (54) of the collar (5), said fin (56) being placed between said pair of opposing tabs (55) and with the edge of the fin (56) contacting the internal side of the rear wall (25) of the external container (2), to distance the rear wall (54) of the collar (5) from the rear wall (25) of the external container (2) and stiffen the entire package.
Package (1) according to claim 1, wherein said fin (56) is held in position by a pair of teeth (57) placed in contact with and to the sides of the fin (57), each tooth (57) being made by a cut applied to said respective lateral flaps (54a, 54b) of the rear wall (25) of the external container (2).
Package (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said cavity (7) extends between the rear wall (54) of the collar (5) and the opposite rear wall (25) of the external container (2) and between the two lateral walls (26) of the external container (2).
Package (1) according to claim 3, wherein the rear wall (54) of the collar (5) extends parallel to the rear wall (25) of the external container (2), said rear wall (54) of the collar (5) being in direct contact with the internal wrapper (3) on one side and facing the cavity (7) on the other side.
Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the collar (5) comprises at least two of said pair of tabs (55).
Package (1) according to claim 5, wherein said tabs (55) project from the two lateral walls (52) of the collar (5), said lateral walls (52) of the collar (5) being in contact with the internal side of the opposite lateral walls (26) of the external container (2).
Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the internal wrapper (3) is attached to the collar (5).
Package (1) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the collar (5) consists of a single blank (50) that is folded around the internal wrapper (3), the blank (50) comprising:
one first panel (51') that constitutes a front wall (51) of the collar (5);

two second panels (52') that constitute the lateral walls (52) of the collar (5), located at opposite sides of the first panel (51') and separated from the first panel (51') by two longitudinal folding lines (60);

two third panels (54a', 5b') that constitute the rear wall (54) of the collar (5), each third panel (54a', 5b') being separated from the second panel (52') by a respective longitudinal folding line (61);

two fourth panels (58a', 58b') that constitute the respective end flaps (58a, 58b) folded and joined to realize a fin (56), each fourth panel (58a', 58b') being separated from the respective third panels (54a', 5b') by a respective longitudinal folding line (62);

two pairs of tabs (55), each tab (55) being made by a U-shaped cut applied to said third panel (54a', 5b') in proximity to the longitudinal folding line (61) that separates the third panels (54a', 5b') from the second panels (52').
Package (1) according to claim 8, wherein the blank (50) further comprises two teeth (57), each tooth (57) being made by a U-shaped cut applied to said third panel (54a', 5b') in proximity to the longitudinal folding line (62) that separates the third panels (54a', 5b') from the fourth panels (58a', 58b').
Wrapping method to make a rigid cigarette package; the wrapping method comprising the steps of:
providing a sheet of internal wrapper;

folding the sheet of wrapper around a bundle (4) of articles to make an internal wrapper (3) that encloses the bundle (4) of articles;

folding a first blank around the internal wrapper to make a rigid external container (2) that accommodates the internal wrapper (3);

folding a second blank (50) forming a collar (5) around the internal wrapper (3) before folding the first blank around the internal wrapper (3),

the wrapping method is characterized by the fact that it comprises the further steps of

folding two pairs of tabs (55) of the second blank (50) placed in continuation of the lateral walls (52) of the collar (5) in such a manner that one of their edges is in contact with the external container (2) to distance the collar (5) wrapped around the internal wrapper (3) from the external container (2) forming a cavity (7);

folding two pairs of end flaps (58a, 58b) of the second blank (50) and joining them in order to create a fin (56) with the edge of the fin (56) contacting the external container (2), said fin (56) being interposed between the pair of tabs (55).