FR2876673A1 - Volatile flavoring substance e.g. perfume, sampling device for use in e.g. shopping center, has pellet, made up of absorbing material, integrated on part of plate, where pellet is impregnated with substance and covered by cover - Google Patents

Abstract

The device has a rigid or semi-rigid gripping plate (2). A pellet (3) made up of an absorbing material is integrated on a part (22) of the plate. The pellet is impregnated with a volatile flavoring substance in native form. The thickness of the pellet is lesser than outer dimensions of the plate. The pellet is tightly covered by a waterproof cover (4) fixed in a removable manner on the plate. Independent claims are also included for the following: (A) a method of sampling a volatile aromatic substance (B) a machine for implementing a method of sampling a volatile aromatic substance.

Description

The present invention relates to a sampling device of a

  volatile aromatic substance, as well as a method of sampling such a substance and a machine for carrying out this process.

  The invention applies preferentially to the fields of perfumery and the food industry, that is to say, more generally, to the fields in which one seeks to make a person feel, as a test, a odor consisting of vapors of a volatile aromatic substance, such as a perfume or a food aroma. This person can choose from among several substances available, the one whose smell seems to him the most suitable or the most pleasant. For example, in a perfumery, customers are generally offered to smell the vapors of different fragrances to enable them to choose the perfume they will buy a bottle.

  Currently, in the perfumeries, test bottles are available to customers to apply different flavors to test on flexible paper tabs that the customer can then feel alternately. This sampling method generates waste of perfumes and tongues, which induces a significant financial loss for perfumery. In addition, the vapors of the various fragrances tested mix quickly, which distorts the appreciation of the customer. In addition, some users divert the first use of test bottles to apply drops of perfume on their skin and thus perfume for free, which represents a shortfall for perfumery. In addition, this method requires that the customer is present in perfumery to test perfumes, which does not allow to introduce new fragrances to potential customers not regularly attending a perfumery.

  To circumvent this last drawback, it is known to distribute, for advertising purposes, mini-test flasks, containing a few milliliters of perfume. This method can reach a larger customer base but is particularly expensive. To reduce costs, these mini-test flasks are sometimes replaced by a flexible pouch made with two superimposed waterproof sheets between which is stored a sample of the perfume to be tested. This pouch can easily be torn, at least in part, by a user who then has access to the sample. The latter is presented in the form of a few drops of perfume, which have the disadvantage of poorly spread in the atmosphere and therefore not to allow the user to make a real opinion as to the fragrance tested, except to use a large amount of perfume, either in the form of a gel or a material within which the perfume is chemically encapsulated, which generates additional costs related to the development of a new formulation for encapsulation and what makes the perfume run the risk of being denatured and thus of releasing an odor different from that which diffuses in the liquid state. In addition, that the sampled perfume is in the form of drops or gel, the user can divert the first use of the sampling device to apply the perfume on the skin and thus perfume for free. Moreover, the flexible structure of these sample bags is, in use, inconvenient since the user must handle with care the more or less torn device when approaching the sample of his nose. This structure is thus not appropriate to sample a luxury product such as perfume.

  Similar problems arise, for example, in the agri-food sector.

  The object of the present invention is to provide a sampling device which, while being economical to manufacture, is practical and friendly, and which guarantees the user to test the real and undenatured odor of a substance. aromatic volatile, without allowing it to use this substance for other purposes, for example to perfume in the case of a perfume.

  For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a device for sampling a volatile aromatic substance, such as a perfume or aroma, characterized in that it comprises a rigid or semi-rigid gripping support on a part which is secured a pellet consisting of an absorbent material, capable of being impregnated with the volatile aromatic substance in native form and covered hermetically by a sealed lid removably attached to the support.

  The device according to the invention is thus in an attractive form and particularly convenient for the user who, by seizing the support, can easily and quickly approach the nose impregnated pellet. The sampled substance, which is stored in liquid form in the tablet, retains its native form, ie the form in which it was produced and under which it will subsequently be used by the user if the user decides to use a large amount of the substance, for example if he decides to buy a bottle of perfume. The amount of substance which is impregnated the pellet is very small, in any case much less than that required to fill a mini-test bottle such as those mentioned above. However, despite the small amount of substance used in the sampling device according to the invention, the user has sufficient olfactory information to assess the smell of the substance since the absorbent material constituting the pellet guarantees volatilization of the substance. substance much greater than that of the same quantity of substance only deposited between two sealed sheets such as those of a sample bag. Furthermore, once the lid of the device according to the invention is released, the user is unable to apply the perfume on his skin since it is volatilized progressively from the pellet, without being able to be extracted easily in a liquid form.

  According to other advantageous features of this device, taken separately according to all the technically possible combinations: the absorbent material constituting the pellet is adapted to, firstly, store the volatile aromatic substance essentially in liquid form and without chemical interaction with this substance and, on the other hand, diffuse the substance by volatilization when the seal is released; the absorbent material constituting the pellet is chosen from a blotter, a woven or non-woven synthetic material and a synthetic sponge; the support is in the form of an essentially flat plate; - The thickness of the pellet is less than the outer dimensions of the support; the support carries externally at least one support zone of textual and / or graphic information.

  The subject of the invention is also a method for sampling a volatile aromatic substance, characterized in that it comprises steps consisting of: providing a rigid or semi-rigid gripping support, and securing a lozenge constituted by of an absorbent material on a part of the support, - impregnating the pellet with the volatile aromatic substance in native form, and - hermetically covering the pellet by a sealed lid removably attached to the support.

  This method makes it possible to manufacture the sampling device as defined above, in a fast, easy and economical manner.

  According to other characteristics of this process: - to impregnate the pellet, it delivers to the pellet a quantity of volatile aromatic substance of at most 500 microliters.

  the lid is fixed on the support by gluing, heat-sealing or heat-sealing.

  The invention further relates to a machine for implementing the method as defined above, characterized in that it comprises: - means for providing the gripping support, - positioning means and securing the pellet on the support, - means for feeding the pellet to the volatile aromatic substance, and - means for fixing the lid on the support.

  The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, given solely by way of example and with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective exploded view of a device of FIG. sampling according to the invention, and - Figure 2 is a partial cross section of the device of Figure 1.

  FIGS. 1 and 2 show a device 1 for sampling a perfume, intended to be dispensed to a user so that the latter can smell, as a test, the vapors of the perfume contained in this device. The device 1 is intended for example to be distributed free in a shopping center or at the entrance of a perfumery.

  The device 1 comprises three essential components, namely a rigid or semi-rigid support 2 for gripping, a tablet 3 able to be impregnated with perfume in native form and a peelable cap 4 adapted to hermetically cover the tablet 3 resting on the plate 2 These three components will successively be detailed below.

  The support 2 is in the form of a parallelepipedal flat plate, whose thickness e2 is significantly smaller than the other two dimensions. This plate is made sufficiently rigid to be grasped and manipulated by holding, for example, by one of its corners, without inducing a significant deformation of the plate. In other words, in use, the plate 2 maintains a generally flat configuration. For this purpose, the plate 2 is for example made of a plastic material.

  The plate 2 has a plane face 21 directed upwards in FIGS. 1 and 2, on which the chip 3 is attached. More specifically, this chip is located at a first zone 22 of the face 21 while a second zone 23, distinct from the zone 22, is provided to support an advertising label 24. As a variant not shown, this zone 23 is directly printed, that is to say, more generally, used to support textual information. and / or graphics relating to the sampled perfume.

  Of course, the entire face 21 of the plate 2, outside the zone 22, as well as its entire opposite face 25 may be used as advertising or similar information media, visible by the user.

  The pellet 3 comprises a disk-shaped body 31 which extends parallel to the face 21 of the plate 2. This disk is made of an absorbent material able to store the test perfume essentially in liquid form as long as this material is not exposed to free air for a long time. On the other hand, when the cover 4 is disengaged and a large part of the body 31 of the pellet 3 is exposed to the ambient atmosphere, the material constituting this pellet ensures the diffusion of the perfume vapors. This material is chosen so that the storage in liquid form of the perfume does not involve any chemical interaction with this perfume, which could distort the smell of the vapors released during the release of the lid. For this purpose, this absorbent material is chosen from a blotter, a woven or non-woven synthetic material, a synthetic sponge or the like.

  The disk 31, whose material is relatively flexible, is supported by the face 21 of the rigid plate 2, at the zone 22. To prevent the pellet 3 from accidentally falling during the release of the lid 4 and either by example inadvertently ingested by a child, the disc 31 is secured permanently on the face 21, for example by means of an adhesive layer 5. Alternatively not shown, other possibilities of securing the chip 3 on the plate 2 are conceivable, for example by complementarity of shapes or by heat-sealing.

  The lid 4 is in the overall form of a disk 41 made for example of a multilayer material which makes it possible at the same time to form a sealed barrier with respect to the perfume whose pellet is impregnated, in both its liquid form and of vapors, and to fix the cap releasably on the face 21 of the passover 2, all around the pellet 3. The disc 41 is thus fixed by gluing, heat sealing, heat sealing or the like, along a peripheral fastening line 42 This line is designed to be broken when the user is peeling off the lid 4, as indicated by the arrow F4 in Figure 2.

  To facilitate the peeling of the lid, the disc 41 is provided, at a point of its outer periphery, with a pull tab 43.

  In order to manufacture the sampling device 1, the plate 2 as shown in FIG. 1 is firstly available, the advertising label 24 possibly being subsequently reported. The pellet 3 is then attached and secured to the face 21 of this plate, at the zone 22, as indicated by the arrow 61 in Figure 1, with the interposition of the adhesive layer 5. Once the pellet assembly, at least a drop of perfume is deposited therein so as to impregnate the absorbent material constituting this pellet. In practice, the amount of perfume deposited is advantageously less than 500 microliters. This small amount is for example delivered by a calibrated scent feed nozzle.

  The lid 4 is then quickly attached and fixed on the face 21 of the plate 2 as indicated by the arrow 62 in FIG. 1, sealingly covering the pellet 3.

  The method described above is for example implemented along an automated assembly line.

  When the user wishes to test the smell of the sampled perfume, he peels the lid 4 with one hand while his other hand holds the rigid plate 2, then, thanks to the aforementioned hand, he approaches the nose 3 thus discovered at least in part.

  Various arrangements and variants of the device 1 described above are furthermore conceivable. In particular, the peripheral contour of the plate 2 is not limited to a rectangle as in FIG. 1, but can instead be worked in such a way that the plate 2 has, in front view, the outline of a bottle perfume or an aesthetic pattern such as a drop.

  More generally, the shape of the support 2 is not limited to a plate, but this support can take very different volume forms which however have sufficient rigidity to be grasped and manipulated with ease and dexterity by the user to bring the impregnated pellet 3 to his nose. Such a volume support is in particular made of an injected plastic material, thermoformed or the like. This support thus delimits, outside the area initially covered by the lid 4, many potential areas for the commercial information medium, all or part of these areas can thus be customized by prints, labels, decorations reported etc. Advantageously, the thickness e3 of the pellet is provided less than the outer dimensions of the support 2 so as to limit as much as possible the localized super-thickness at the pellet implantation zone 22 and thus to preserve, for the support , its overall aesthetic.

Claims (10)

  1. Apparatus for sampling (1) a volatile aromatic substance, characterized in that it comprises a rigid or semi-rigid gripping support (2) on a portion (22) which is secured to a pellet (3) constituted an absorbent material, capable of being impregnated with the volatile aromatic substance in native form and covered hermetically by a sealed lid (4) removably attached to the support.   2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the absorbent material constituting the pellet (3) is adapted to, firstly, store the volatile aromatic substance substantially in liquid form and without chemical interaction with this substance and, d ' on the other hand, diffuse the substance by volatilization when the cover (4) is released.   3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the absorbent material constituting the pellet (3) is selected from a blotter, a woven or non-woven synthetic material and a synthetic sponge.   4. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the support is in the form of a plate (2) substantially flat.   5. Device according to any one of   preceding claims, characterized in that   the thickness (e3) of the pellet (3) is smaller than the external dimensions of the support (2).   6. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the support (2) externally carries at least one zone (23) for supporting textual information and / or graphics.   7. A method for sampling a volatile aromatic substance, characterized in that it comprises steps consisting of: - arranging a rigid or semi-rigid gripping support (2), - securing a pellet (3) consisting of an absorbent material on a portion (22) of the support (2), - impregnating the pellet (3) with the volatile aromatic substance in native form, and - hermetically cover the pellet (3) with a sealed seal (4) fixed removably on the support (2).   8. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that to impregnate the pellet (3) is delivered to the pellet an amount of volatile aromatic substance of at most 500 microliters.   9. A method according to one of claims 7 or 8, characterized in that the lid (4) is fixed on the support (2) by gluing, heat sealing or heat sealing.   10. Machine for implementing a sampling method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized in that it comprises: - means for providing the gripping support (2), - means for positioning and securing the pellet (3) on the support (2), - means for feeding the pellet (3) with the volatile aromatic substance, and - means for fixing the cap (4) on the support (2).