GB2167376A

GB2167376A - Shrink wrapped packaging

Info

Publication number: GB2167376A
Application number: GB08423174A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Michael Ernest Allen
Original assignee: Castrol Ltd
Current assignee: Castrol Ltd
Priority date: 1984-09-13
Filing date: 1984-09-13
Publication date: 1986-05-29
Also published as: GB2167376B; GB8423174D0

Abstract

A container (10) of oil, for instance, is shrink wrapped with a sleeve (12) of heat shrinkable plastics, preferably transparent, material. The get-up of the packaging, is reverse-printed on the inside (19) of the sleeve (12) (when it is transparent) and it is provided with one or more areas (20) delimited by perforations enabling said areas to be torn off. The areas (20) may be printed in the same way with pricing details so that they are visible from the outside (19) or with promotional or pricing details in normal print and on a preprinted portion so that those details can only be seen when the area (20) is removed. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Shrink wrapped packaging This invention relates to packaging and to promotional methods associated with the packaging.

In the retail, and sometimes the wholesale, trade it is often desirable to include some promotional material with the article being sold in order to enhance sales of that article. The material may be in the form of an offer of some description and thus may include a token to be collected by the customer, or in the form of a money-off-the-next-purchasetoken, or in the form of a competition to be entered by the customer or indeed it might simply be in the form of some advertising or promotional information. In any event it is usual that such material be separable from the rest of the packaging and this does not usually provide any significant problems where the packaging is a thin carboard box such as commonly used for cornflakes, toothpaste or the like and where the material in question can simply be cut from the box.

Hitherto, however, it has always been a problem in respect of oils to provide promotional materials where the oil is sold in five or two-and-a-half litre tins. There is no area which can conveniently be cut from the container and any tags which could be attached are either too easily removable by accident or by piiferers or, to avoid that, are too strongly attached for easy removal at the appropriate time. While this invention is primarily concerned with removable promotional material it is also sometimes desirable if pricing details are removable from the packaging at the time of purchase-for stock control reasons for instance-and the same problems can be associated with them.

With oil cans this problem is sometimes overcome by sticking the promotional or pricing details to the can for subsequent removal therefrom. Sometimes this may be in the form of a plastics or paper envelope stuck to, but removable from, the container and itself containing the promotional material for the customer. This is rather an expensive method.

The present invention therefore seeks an improved method of presenting promotional or pricing details.

In accordance with this invention there is provided packaging for an article comprising a sleeve or envelope of heat shrinkage plastics materials having an area delimited by perforations to enable said area to be removed from the sleeve or envelope after it has been heat shrunk around the article said area being printable with promotional or pricing details.

Preferable the sleeve or envelope is transparent and is reverse printed with decoration on the surface thereof which is to lie adjacent the article before being heat shrunk onto the article. The decoration may be in the form of the normal get-up including trade marks, colour schemes etc. associated with the article.

Preferably said area is covered with said decoration, which may or may not draw attention to the area, and said decoration is overprinted in the area with said promotional or pricing details such that they are not visible through the decoration but only from the side on which they are printed, that is on the side adjacent the article, and only once the area has been removed from the sleeve or envelope.

Where the article is a can or container of oil the method of packaging using shrinkable plastics provides in itself, a number of advantages and the present invention now provides a further advantage and reason for adopting this method of packaging more generally.

Certain PVC films are available providing high quality bases on which to print and reliable and predictable shrinkage characteristics enabling the end product to have a satisfactory and non-distorted appearance.

The invention is further described hereinafter with referemce to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a can and a sleeve according to the invention; and, Figure 2 is a perspective view of a section of a part of a sleeve as in Fig. 1.

In Fig. 1 a container 10 is for oil or the like and is constructed from tin plate or plastics or a combination thereof. It may be square as shown or cylindrical if preferred. It is either painted a base colour or is left unpainted depending on the end result desired. A tubular sleeve 12 of transparent plastics 14 is arranged so that it may be slipped around the can 10. The plastics material 14 is of the type which can be printed with a design and which can be heat shrunk. Such material is Genotherm GZ44 (Registered Trade Mark) for example which is sold by Kalle Niederlassung Der Hoechst AG of West Germany. With reference to Fig. 2a sheet 14 thereof is preprinted with a layer 16 (which may in fact involve more than one print run) having the get-up of the container thereon in reverse so that from the out-side 18 thereof the get-up can be seen.

An area or areas 20 of the sheet 14 are defined by perforations 22 and on top of the print layer 16 within the confines of the area 20 another layer 24 is printed (which again may involve more than one print run). The layer 24 may be arranged to be invisible from the outside 18, the printing thereon being readable in that case only from the inside 9.

Thus once the sleeve 18 is placed on the can 10 and has been heat shrunk onto it the only way the printing on the area 20 can be read is if that area is removed. It is for this that the perforations 22 are provided and to ease commencement of the removal of the area 20 one side 21 or perhaps a corner 23, could be cut completely enabling a finger to be inserted behind the area 20.

It is apparent that there are a number of printing options available and choice of any one depends on the particular circumstances and the end result desired.

If the plastics sheath or sleeve 12 is indeed transparent plastics then either the tin 10 or the sleeve 12 will require coating with the background colour of the package get-up. If it is the sleeve 12 then of course it would be preprinted with the get-up itself. This may include some pointer or reference to the area 20.

If it is the tin which is coated then the area 20 will also require coating with the background colour after the get-up has been applied in layer 16. Otherwise some printing on the area 20 would be visible from the outside 18 in those regions (if any) for example region 30 Fig. 1, which are not printed as part of the get-up.

If pricing details are to be presented in the removable area 20 then of course it may be desirable that these are visible from the outside 18.

Claims

1. Packaging for an article comprising a sleeve or envelope of heat shrinkable plastics material having an area delimited by perforations to enable said area to be removed from the sleeve or envelope after it has been heat shrunk around the article said area being printable with promotional or pricing details or the like.

2. Packaging as claimed in claim 1 in which the sleeve or envelope is constructed from transparent plastics material.

3. Packaging as claimed in claim 2 in which the sleeve or envelope is reverseprinted with decoration on the surface thereof which is to lie adjacent the article.

4. Packaging as claimed in any preceding claim in which the area is printed in normal print with said promotional or pricing details on the surface of the sleeve or envelope which is to lie adjacent the article.

5. Packaging as claimed in claim 4 and in claim 2 or 3 in which the area is preprinted with a background colour of the decoration before being printed with said promotional or pricing details.

6. Packaging as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said plastics material is PVC.

7. Packaging as claimed in claim 6 in which said PVC is Genotherm GZ44 (Registered Trade Mark) sold by Kalle Niederlassung Der Hoechst AG.

8. Packaging as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said area is square or rectangular.

9. Packaging as claimed in any of claims 1 to 7 wherein said area is circular.

10. Packaging as claimed in any preceding claim wherein a portion of said perforations is a cut in the plastics material to ease the commencement of the removal of said area from the packaging.

11. Packaging as claimed in claims 8 and 10 in which said cut is a side or a corner of said square or rectangle.

12. Packaging substantially as hereinfore described with reference to the drawings.