GB2091694A

GB2091694A - Reclosable Tightly Sealing Box

Info

Publication number: GB2091694A
Application number: GB8202032A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Tampella Oy AB
Current assignee: Tampella Oy AB
Priority date: 1981-01-28
Filing date: 1982-01-25
Publication date: 1982-08-04
Also published as: FI61159B; FI61159C

Abstract

A box (10) of cardboard, corrugated paper, or another sheet- like material, comprises a case-like shell part (38), an inner cover (30) and a hinged outer cover (40). The inner cover (30) includes an opening flap (33) defined by lines of weakness, this flap remaining hinged, on opening, to the remainder of the inner cover (30) and thereby defining a closable dispensing aperture. The outer cover (40) is secured to the shell part (38) of the box (10) prior to the first opening of the box by locking portions (49) (50) which are torn apart on opening. The opening flap (33) preferably includes a tab (37) defined by perforations. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Reclosable Tightly Sealing Box The present invention concerns a box of cardboard, corrugated paper, or another sheetlike material, comprising a case-like shell part, an inner cover and an outer cover, said outer cover being turnable about a hinge bend for opening, respectively closing, the box, and the inner cover of said box being providable with a dispensing aperture which is formed when the box is opened.

Regarding the state of art, reference is made e.g. to the Finnish patent applications No.

800258 and 800259. The Finnish patent application No. 800259 discloses a box comprising a case-like shell part and a cover part.

The case-like shell part is furnished with a dispensing aperture, and the cover part is turnable about a hinge bend for opening/closing the box.

The box has been formed so that before the box has been opened for the first time the cover part of the box is secured to the shell part by means of a tear-off locking means. The box has a locking means operable during use, this means having been formed of a flap-like element constituting an extension to the cover part of the box and shaped to conform to the shape of the dispensing aperture. The flap-like element attaches to the front side of the cover part of the box by a horizontal grooved line, and the flap-like element has been provided with a horizontal perforation dividing the flap-like element into an upper part and a lower part.The lower part of the flap-like element has been glued to the front side of the box below the dispensing aperture therein provided, whereby when the box is opened the perforation in the flap-like element is torn and the lower part of the flap-like element remains adherent to the front side of the box immediately under the dispensing aperture, while the upper part of the flap-like element forms on the front part of the cover part a tongue-like locking claw, whereby when the box is closed again the upper part and lower part of the flap-like element together constitute the locking means operative during use.

In this box or prior art the locking during use has been solved in a particularly simple way, permitting the box to be reclosed in a convenient and reliable way. The drawback encumbering this box of prior art is that the box is not dust-proof- a feature absolutely required in connection with certain goods packaged in such a box.

Present practice is mostry to pack goods which tend to give off dust in a separate bag and to place this bag in a case. This type of solution is unsatisfactory in that it requires a separate bag component in addition to the packing case; as a result such a package is also comparatively costly.

In the prior art is furthermore known a socalled box with two cover structures, on which the dispensing aperture has been formed in the inner cover, with the aid of perforations. The outer cover of the box is closed upon the inner cover by means of a locking tongue on the outer cover, this tongue being pushed into a slit on the margin of the inner cover. This kind of locking during use is unsatisfactory, with the result that the box cannot be reclosed in any reliable manner. This box of prior art also is not dust-proof enough because when the box is taken into use a dispensing aperture is created in the inner, cover by removing the perforated part of the inner cover. When the box is closed again, the outer cover fails to accomplish dust-proof sealing of the dispensing aperture in the inner cover, owing to the unsatisfactory locking means operating during use.

What is desired is a box which is as dust-proof as possible, having a reliable locking means operative during use.

The present invention provides a box in which on the inner cover of the box has been formed an opening flap confined by weaking lines and arranged when it is opened to remain attached to the inner cover by a hinge bend and to constitute a closable dispensing aperture on the inner cover, and the outer cover has been secured to the shell part of the box by the aid of a locking means to be torn off when the box is opened for the first time, said locking means having been formed of a flaplike element constituting an extension to the outer cover.

Preferred features of the box of the invention are stated in claims 2 to 8. A particularly satisfactory embodiment is a box where the size of the aperture that is formed in the lower part of the flap-like element is less than that of the part of the opening flap continuing onto the front side of the box.

The box of the invention affords remarkable advantages. The box of the invention is reliably dust-proof, especially when the opening flap on the inner cover of the box covers the aperture in the front panel of the box. Furthermore, the box with two cover parts according to the invention has a reliable locking means operative during use, enabling the box to be reclosed in a convenient way. Moreover, the favourable features of the box of the invention have been attained in a simple way which does not increase the manufacturing costs.

The invention will be described further in detail with reference being made to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, presented in the accompanying drawings, but to which the invention is not meant to be exclusively confined.

In the drawings.

Fig. 1 represents an advantageous box blank; Fig. 2 shows the box made of the blank of Fig.

1, closed; and Fig. 3 shows the box of Fig. 2, opened.

In Fig. 1, the box blank made of cardboard or corrugated paper has been indicated with the reference numeral 10 in general. Of the box blank 10 is made a box as shown in Fig. 2, the elements 11 and 12 of the blank 10 constituting the front and rear sides and the elements 13-1 6 the lateral sides of the box. The element 21 of the blank 10 constitutes the bottom of the box. In Fig.

2, the reference numeral 38 indicates the caselike shell part of the box 10 of the invention, this shell being formed of the elements 11-16 of the box blank 10 in a way known in itself in the art.

The elements 17-20 of the box blank 10 are folded, e.g. so that the elements 17 and 19, and the elements 18 and 20 respectively, are interposed between the elements 13 and 15, or 14 and 16 respectively, constituting the lateral sides.

Of the element 30 of the box blank 10 is formed the inner cover and of the element 40 of the box blank 10, similarly the outer cover of the box. The inner cover 30 comprises the element 31 and the glue flap 32 connecting therewith. The glue flap 32 affixes the inner cover 30 to the rear side 12 of the box 10. On the element 31 of the inner cover 30 have been made traces 34 and 35 to define an opening flap 33. A trace is understood to mean generally a weakened line which does not fully cut through the cardboard.

The opening flap 33 has been disposed to continue over the bend 22 between elements 11 and 31 onto the front side 11, constituting the element 37, which is confined on the front side 11 by the perforation 36. It should be particularly noted that the oblique traces 34 and 35 have been made so that the oblique trace 34 has been made on the outside of the element 31, while the oblique trace 35 has been made on the inside of the element 31. Both traces 34 and 35 usually penetrate only to approximately half the depth of the cardboard thickness in the element 31 on both sides thereof. Moreover, the oblique trace 35 is located at a small distance inward from the oblique trace 34. The outside traces have been disposed to join the perforation 36 on the front side 11.When the opening flap 33 is opened, the cardboard will split between the traces 34 and 35 because the traces 34 and 35 have been made in that the cardboard has been sliced on both sides down to about half the thickness of the cardboard.

The outer cover 40 of the box comprises the elements 41 and 42, the element 42 going to constitute the front side of the cover element 40, and similarly the bend 23 between elements 41 and 12 serving as hinge bend for the outer cover 40. Of the elements 43 and 45, and similarly 44 and 46, of the outer cover 40 are formed the lateral sides of the outer cover 40. The element 42 of the outer cover has furthermore as its extension the flap-like element 47, which has been provided with a substantially horizontal perforation 48, which divides the flap-like element 47 into an upper part 49 and a lower part 50. The lower part 50 has moreover been provided with an opening 51, which has a size preferably somewhat smaller than the size of the part 37 of the opening flap continuing onto the front panel side 11.

When making a finished box of the box blank shown in Fig. 1, the procedure is to glue the glue flap 32 to the rear side 12 of the box 10 and to glue the part 50 of the flap-like element 47 to the front side 11 so that the aperture 51 comes to lie downward from the upper margin of the front side 11. After the glue flap 32 and the part 50 of the flap-like element 47 have been fastened by glueing, the box 10 may be filled and closed through its sides on a packaging machine, in which operation one obtains the finished box 10 of Fig. 2 by glueing to each other the lateral sides 13 and 15, respectively 14 and 16,ofthe box 10 and the lateral sides 43 and 45, respectively 44 and 46, of the outer cover 40.

When the box 10 depicted in Fig. 2 is opened, the perforated line 48 is torn, allowing the outer cover 40 to be opened by turning the outer cover 40 about the hinge bend 23, as indicated in Fig.

3. Next, the opening flap 33 is opened along the traces 34 and 35 and the perforation 36, whereby the opening flap 33 will constitute in the inner cover a dispensing aperture and will remain connected to the inner cover by the hinge bend 24. The dispensing aperture continues, of coures, on the side of the front side 11 as an aperture the size of the part 37. The part 49 of the flap-like element 47 constitutes a tongue-like locking claw on the element 42 of the cover part 40. For reclosing the box 10 of Fig. 3, one bends the opening flap 33 on the inner cover 30 to make the part 37 of the opening flap 33 cover the aperture 51. Next, the outer cover 40 is bent about the hinge bend 23, whereby the tongue-like locking claw 49 integral with the part 42 of the outer cover 40 forms a reliable locking during use, in cooperation with the part 50 of the flap-like element 47 integral with the front side 11. The reclosed box 10 is excellently dust-proof as regards the contribution of the inner cover 30 because by the opening flap 33 with two-sided tracing is achieved an overlapping coverage of the dispensing aperture. Similarly, the claw flap 37 of the opening flap 33 forms an overlapping cover on the aperture 51.

In the foregoing only one advantageous embodiment of the invention has been described, and it is obvious to a person skilled in the art that this may be modified in many different ways within the scope of the claims hereto appended.

Claims

1. A box of cardboard, corrugated paper, or another sheet-like material, comprising a caselike shell part (38), an inner cover (30), and an outer cover (40) turnable about a hinge bend (23) for the purpose of opening and closing the box, in which on the inner cover (30) has been formed an opening flap (33), confined by weakened lines (34, 35) disposed when it is opened to remain connected to the inner cover (30) by a hinge bend (24) and to provide in the inner cover (30) a closable dispensing aperture, and the outer cover (40) is secured to the shell part (38), before the first opening of the box, by the aid of a tear-off locking means, the locking means comprising a flap-like element (47) constituting an extension to the outer cover (40).

2. A box as claimed in claim 1, in which the opening flap (33) has been disposed to continue over the bend (22) between the inner cover (30) and the front side (11) of the box (10) as a part (37) which is confined on the front side (11) by a perforation (36).

3. A box as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which the weakening lines (34, 35) comprise weakening lines (34) on the outside of the inner cover (30) and weakening lines (35) on the inside of the inner cover (30), and all of the weakening lines only extend into the sheet-like material approximately half its thickness in the inner cover (30) on both sides thereof.

4. A box as claimed in claim 3, in which each inside weakening line (35) is located a small d-istance inwardly from the associated outside weakening line (34).

5. A box as claimed in claim 3 or 4, in which all of the weakening lines (34, 35) are oblique with reference to the margins of the inner cover (30), and the outside weakening lines (34) have been disposed to join a or the perforation (36) on the front side (11) of the box.

6. A box as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the flap-like element (47) has been provided with a substantially horizontal perforation (48) which divides the flap-like element (47) into an upper part (49) and a lower part (50), the lower part (50) being glued to the front side (11) of the box (10), whereby when'the box (10) is opened the perforation (48) is torn open and the said lower part (50) remains connected with the front side (11), while the said upper part (49) constitutes on the front part (42) of the outer cover (40) a tongue-like locking claw, whereby when the outer cover (40) is reclosed the upper part (49) and lower part (50) of the flap-like element (47) constitute the locking means operative during use.

7. A box as claimed in claim 6, in which there is an aperture (51) in the lower part (50) of the flaplike element (47).

8. A box as claimed in claim 7 when dependent on claim 2, in which the size of the said aperture (51) is slightly less than the size of the part (37) of the opening flap (33) continuing onto the front side (11).

9. A box substantially as described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.