GB2313828A

GB2313828A - Carton and blank therefor with tear strips

Info

Publication number: GB2313828A
Application number: GB9711418A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Roger Joseph Wonnacott
Original assignee: David S Smith Packaging Ltd
Current assignee: David S Smith Packaging Ltd
Priority date: 1996-06-03
Filing date: 1997-06-03
Publication date: 1997-12-10
Anticipated expiration: 2017-06-03
Also published as: GB9611522D0; GB9711418D0; GB2313828B

Abstract

A packaging carton is formed from at least two blanks, e.g. an outer blank 10 and inner blanks (21, 22 see fig 2) of stiff but flexible beard material, one blank forming at least part of the outer layer of the carton body or lid and having first and second panels 12 and 13, each having a transverse tear strip 17, 18. Tearing of one of the tear strips 18 may facilitate the hinged connection of a lid 14 to the remainder of the carton (see fig 3), whilst tearing of both strips may allow removal of the lid (see fig 5). In alternative embodiments, the lid may be provided by a separate blank, in which case the tear strips may either be provided on the blank forming the carton body (see fig 9), or on the blank forming the lid (see figs 10, 11). The tear strips are preferably provided by lengths of reinforcing material applied to the board material, with pull tabs at centre positions. The blank may be provided with hingeable portions for forming hand holds 15, 16. The blanks are glued together.

Description

PACKAGING CARTON AND BLANK THEREFOR This invention relates to a packaging carton and to a blank therefor made from stiff but foldable board material.

WO 92/02424 describes a carton made from stiff but foldable board material and having a tear strip delimiting first and second carton parts which are hingedly connected after use of the tear strip. The tear strip can thus be used to open a lid of the carton, which lid can then be hinge4 back into its closed position. A disadvantage of this prior art carton is that its erection is relatively labour intensive.

From a first aspect, the present invention provides a carton made from at least two blanks of stiff but foldable board material, one of said blanks forming at least part of an outer layer of the carton and comprising first and second panels and a third panel between the first and second panels and connected to the first and second panels at fold lines, each of said first and second panels having a transversely extending tear strip, preferably extending substantially parallel to its respective fold line and portions of the said one blank between the tear strips being attached to an inner layer formed from at least one other of the blanks.

The carton may be arranged such that operation, i.e, tearing, of one of the tear strips facilitates the hinged connection of a part of the carton to the remainder thereof and operation of both tear strips facilitates removal of the part of the carton.

Preferably, the hingeable or removable part of the carton comprises a lid of the carton. The lid may form part of said one blank or may be formed from a separate blank.

Conveniently, the outer and inner layers are each provided with at least one hingeable portion for forming a hand hold, respective hingeable portions of the outer and inner layers being in registration and the outer portion being arranged to be folded around an edge of the inner layer exposed when the outer and inner hingeable portions are pushed inwardly of the carton.

From a second aspect, the present invention provides a blank of stiff but foldable board material designed to be erected into an outer layer of a packaging carton, said blank comprising first and second panels and a third panel between the first and second panels and connected to the first and second panels at fold lines, each of said first and second panels having a transversely extending tear strip, preferably extending substantially parallel to the respective fold line.

In one embodiment of the invention, the tear strips are provided by lengths of reinforcing material applied to the board material. A suitable reinforcing material is a tape known by the trade mark "Sesame", available from Sesame Industries Ltd of Quebec, Canada.

The blank may include at least one portion intended to form a lid for the carton, which lid can be placed in a hinged condition by the operation of one of the tear strips and can be removed by operation of both tear strips.

From a third aspect, the present invention provides a packaging carton made from at least one foldable blank, and having at least two tear strips each extending across or along the blank or one of the blanks, wherein operation of one or some of the tear strips facilitates the hinged connection of a part of the carton to the remainder thereof and operation of both or all of the tear strips facilitates removal of the part of the carton. Preferably, the hingeable or removable part of the carton comprises a lid thereof.

In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, reference will now be made by way of example only to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first blank for use in a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a perspective view of an inner layer for use in the first embodiment; Figure 3 shows a partially erected carton according to the first embodiment, Figure 4 shows the carton of Figure 3 prior to sealing of the lid; Figure 5 shows a carton according to the first embodiment with its lid in the hinged condition; Figures 6a and 6b are fragmentary cross-sectional views of outer and inner layers of a carton according to the invention, showing the formation of a hand hold; Figure 7 is a perspective view of a first blank for use in a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 8 shows a partially erected carton according to the second embodiment; Figure 9 shows a partially erected carton according to a third embodiment; Figure 10 is a plan of a blank for forming a lid for use in a fourth embodiment, and Figure 11 shows a partially erected carton according to the fourth embodiment.

The blank 10 of Figure 1 is shown from the inside and is intended to form the outer layer of a carton. The blank is cut and creased from a sheet of double-faced corrugated paperboard, the flutes of the central corrugated ply running in the direction of the arrow, and includes a bottom panel 11 interposed between side panels 12, 13 and a lid panel 14 connected to the side panel 12. The four panels 11-14 are each provided with end panels lla-14a and llb-14b respectively, and the lid panel is provided on its free edge with a side panel 14c. The side panels 12, 13 are provided with respective hingeable portions 15, 16, formed by making cuts on three sides thereof.

Tear strips 17, 18 run transversely across the side panels 12, 13, respectively. The tear strips may be made in any conventional manner, but are conveniently formed by length of reinforced material which may, for example, be made up of an llm wide strip of "Sesame" tape located between the outer facing sheet of the board and the corrugated ply and an llmm wide strip located on the face of the inner facing sheet which faces away from the corrugated ply to lie symmetrically behind the first mentioned strip. The lengths of reinforced material of each tear strip are cut at central positions so that each tear strip is formed in two parts. Pulling tabs are provided at the central positions.

Figure 2 shows the erected inner layer 20 of the carton which, in this example, comprises two folded rectangular blanks 21, 22 formed of stiff but foldable board material and each comprising an end panel 21a, 22a interposed between a major side panel 21b, 22b and a minor side panel 21c, 22c.

Each major side panel is provided with a hingeable portion 21d, 22d, formed by making cuts on three sides thereof.

Side panels of the inner layer are composed of a major side panel, e.g. 21b of one of the two blanks and a minor side panel, e.g. 22c of the other blank. As will be appreciated, the inner layer could alternatively be formed from a single blank comprising the two end panels and two side panels.

To assemble the carton, glue is firstly applied to the inner side of parts of the outer blank 10 shown in Figure 1, namely the bottom end flaps gila, llb and the side panels 12, 13 and their respective end flaps 12a, 12b, 13a, 13b, but only between the two tear strips 17, 18. The inner layer 20 is then placed over the bottom panel 11 of the outer layer, which is then folded up around the inner layer and glued thereto to form the partially erected carton shown in Figure 3, which is ready to be filled with a bag of material to be contained, e.g. a bag of pulvurent or other flowable material.

Glue is also applied to the uppermost portion of the exterior of the side panel 13, and end flaps 12a, 12b, 13a, 13b (see Figure 3). As shown in Figure 4, the lid panel 14 is then folded to a horizontal position and the lid flaps 14a - 14c are adhered to the glued parts in order to seal the carton.

When the lid is required to be removed by an end user of the carton, the two tear strips 17, 18 are operated. Figure 5 shows the carton after operation of the tear strips with the lid being removed.

In an alternative arrangement, prior to gluing of the lid flaps 14a-14c, no glue is applied to the side end flaps 12a and 13a nearest the lid panel 14. This allows the lid to be placed in a hinged condition by operating only the tear strip 18 of the side panel 13. If the user so desires, the lid can still be removed by operating both tear strips 17, 18.

Figure 6a shows in cross section, the parts of the outer and inner layers 10,20 including the respective hingeable portions 16, 21d, which register when the carton is erected and which are intended to form a hand hold. An indented score or fold line 21e is formed along the lower inside edge of the portion 21d which is not defined by a cut, and two parallel indented score lines 16a, 16b are formed along the upper inside edge of the portion 16 which is not defined by a cut. To facilitate lifting of the erected carton, hand holds are created by pushing the portion 16 inwardly, which in turn pushes the portion 21d inwardly as it folds along the line 21e. As shown in Figure 6b, the fingers then cause the portion 16 to be folded along the lines l6a, 16b up around the upper edge of the aperture in the inner layer 20 left by the portion 21d. This cushions that upper edge which would otherwise be uncomfortable to hold. The portion 21d prevents a user's fingers perforating any inner bag of contained material.

Figure 7 shows an alternative blank 110 for forming an outer layer of a second embodiment of carton, having a bottom 111, side panels 112, 113 on either side thereof and two lid panels 114d, 114e each of which is intended to form part of the lid. This blank is erected around an inner layer identical to the inner layer 20 shown in Figure 2 and the resulting carton is shown in Figure 8 prior to formation of the lid, which is effected by gluing the two lid panels 114d, 114e together along their overlapping edges.

Figure 9 shows a carton according to a third embodiment of the invention in which the outer blank 210 has no lid panel, an additional blank 230, comprising a lid panel 231 and lid flaps 231a-231d which are glued to the outer layer 210, being provided to form the lid of the carton.

Figure 10 shows, from the inside, a blank 330 for forming a lid of a carton according to a fourth embodiment. This blank comprises a lid panel 331 having side flaps 332, 333 and end flaps 334, 335, the end flaps being provided with tabs 334a, 334b, 335a, 335b. Tear strips 336, 337 run transversely across the side flaps 332, 333, respectively.

Prior to erection of a lid from the blank 330, glue is applied only to the inside of the side flaps 332, 333 in the areas between the tear strips 336, 337 and the free edges of the side flaps and to the outside of the tabs 334a, 334b, 335a, 335b.

Figure 11 shows how the lid blank 330 is folded and glued and how a carton is assembled from the lid blank, two inner blanks as described above and an outer blank 310 which is similar to the outer blank 210 of the third embodiment but is not provided with tear strips. As with the other embodiments, the carton of Figure 11 allows a selection between hinging of the lid, by operating one tear strip, or removal thereof, by operating both tear strips 336, 337.

The invention, as described above, provides a carton which is particularly suitable for storage and transport of bulk flowable, e.g. pulvurent, materials contained within a bag inside the carton. The carton of the invention can easily be erected using known automated techniques.

Claims

1. A carton made from at least two blanks of stiff but foldable board material, one of said blanks forming at least part of an outer layer of the carton and comprising first and second panels and a third panel between the first and second panels and connected to the first and second panels at fold lines, each of said first and second panels having a transversely extending tear strip, and portions of the said one blank between the tear strips being attached to an inner layer formed from at least one other of the blanks.

2. A carton is claimed in claim 1, wherein the tear strips extend substantially parallel to said fold lines.

3. A carton as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the operation, i.e, tearing, of one of the tear strips facilitates the hinged connection of a part of the carton to the remainder thereof and operation of both tear strips facilitates removal of the part of the carton.

4. A carton as claimed in claim 3, wherein the hingeable or removable part of the carton comprises a lid of the carton.

5. A carton as claimed in claim 4, wherein the lid forms part of said one blank.

6. A carton as claimed in claim 4, wherein the lid is formed from a blank other than said one blank.

7. A carton as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the outer and inner layers are each provided with at least one hingeable portion for forming a hand hold, respective hingeable portions of the outer and inner layers being in registration and the outer portion being arranged to be folded around an edge of the inner layer exposed when the outer and inner hingeable portions are pushed inwardly of the carton.

8. A blank of stiff but foldable board material designed to be erected into an outer layer of a packaging carton, said blank comprising first and second panels and a third panel between the first and second panels and connected to the first and second panels at fold lines, each of said first and second panels having a transversely extending tear strip.

9. A blank as claimed in claim 8, wherein the tear strips extend parallel to said fold lines.

10. A blank as claimed in claim 8 or 9, wherein the tear strips are provided by lengths of reinforcing material applied to the board material.

11. A blank as claimed in claim 8, 9 or 10, wherein the blank includes at least one portion intended to form a lid for the carton, which lid can be placed in a hinged condition by the operation of one of the tear strips and can be removed by operation of both tear strips.

12. A packaging carton made from at least one foldable blank, and having at least two tear strips each extending across or along the blank or one of the blanks, wherein operation of one or some of the tear strips facilitates the hinged connection of a part of the carton to the remainder thereof and operation of both or all of the tear strips facilitates removal of the part of the carton.

13. A carton as claimed in in claim 12, wherein the hingeable or removable part of the carton comprises a lid thereof.

14. A packaging carton substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 4 to 6b or Figure 8, 9 or 10 of the accompanying drawings.