GB2418419A

GB2418419A - Containers having removable closure members

Info

Publication number: GB2418419A
Application number: GB0421334A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christopher Harold Chilton; Arthur Cutting; Paul Matthew Johnson; Christopher Pointon; Stuart James Cameron Simm
Original assignee: SCA Packaging Ltd
Current assignee: SCA Packaging Ltd
Priority date: 2004-09-24
Filing date: 2004-09-24
Publication date: 2006-03-29
Also published as: GB0421334D0; EP1640279B1; EP1640279A2; DE602005008529D1; EP1640279A3; ATE402874T1

Abstract

In a container 36 having a plurality of walls 6,10,12 least one wall 12 comprises an inner 4 and an outer 12 panel. The inner panel 4 comprises a line of weakness defining a closure member 32. The outer panel 12 comprises an edge 34. The edge 34 is arranged such that outer panel 12 covers substantially all of line of weakness such as to protect this line of weakness from outside forces during transport and obscures an edge created along the line of weakness after separating closure member 32 from panel 4 from view. The container may have walls of double thickness in an upper part thereof comprising an outer panel and an inner panel formed by folding a flap inwardly around a hinge line arranged towards the bottom of the container.

Description

Containers The present invention relates to containers and in particular

to containers that are configured to be easily transformed from a transport/transit configuration to a display configuration. Such containers are sometimes referred to as transit and display containers.

Some such containers have a base part and a top part separable from the base along lines of perforation.

Such containers can accordingly be easily transformed, for example by shop personnel, from a transit state into a display state without the need for special tools or equipment.

After separation of such parts of the container from each other along such a line of perforation, an edge of the container panels created by this separating may not give a clean cut appearance but may instead comprise parts of the material that had connected the parts of the container prior to separation. This may negatively affect the overall visual appearance of the container in its display configuration.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome or mitigate the above problem, and from a first aspect the present invention provides a container comprising a plurality of walls; at least one of said plurality of walls comprising an inner panel and an outer panel, said outer panel having an access opening formed therein; said inner panel comprising a line of weakness defining a section on said inner panel that can be separated from said inner panel to provide an opening in said inner panel in alignment with said access opening in said outer panel; wherein said line of weakness lies behind said outer panel so as to be covered by said outer panel. - 2

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a container blank for erecting into a container comprising: a first panel and a second panel, said first panel and said second panel arranged such that in the erected container the first panel overlaps at least partially with the second panel and being arranged inside of the second panel, said second panel having an access opening formed therein; said first panel comprising a line of weakness defining a section on said first panel that can be separated from said first panel to provide an opening in said first panel in alignment with said access opening in said second panel in the erected container; wherein said line of weakness lies behind said second panel so as to be covered by said second panel in the erected container.

As the line of weakness is arranged behind the front panel, when the section it surrounds is removed, any untidiness in the torn edge will be hidden by the front panel, leading to a tidier appearance. Also, since the line of weakness is covered it is protected to some extent from forces which might tend to tear it during transit.

Preferably the edge of said access opening in said outer or second panel is arranged to extend substantially parallel to the line of weakness.

Most preferably the line of weakness is set back between 1 and 3 mm from the edge of the access opening.

When erecting a container from a blank, overlap between two panels at opposing ends of a series of panels is desirable, such as to permit closure of all open edges of an erected container. In some previously known container constructions a narrow tab is provided at one end of a series of panels for this purpose. This tab can be glued, stapled or otherwise attached to a panel on the opposite end of a series of panels.

In a container blank of a preferred embodiment the first and second panels are arranged at opposing ends of a series of panels. An adhesive is preferably applied to an area of the face of the first panel that faces the second panel during erecting of the container or to an area of the face of the second panel that faces the first panel during erecting of the container such as to adhere the first and second panels to each other. This preferred embodiment accordingly dispenses with the need for glue tabs.

In an alternative arrangement, the first or inner panel may be directly hingedly connected to the second or outer panel. In this embodiment the first or inner panel can therefore be folded into the container so as to be arranged back to back in contact with the second or outer panel. Preferably one or more other side walls of the container also have a double thickness in their upper parts formed by panels being folded into the container into contact with outer panels. This arrangement is believed to be advantageous in that it allows a different surface finish to be provided in the upper inner part of the container. In particular, being folded into the container the visible surface of the inner flap will be the same as the surface of the outer container wall. This is typically printed, so that printed matter can be provided on the inner surface of the container in a convenient manner.

This is believed to be a novel feature in its own right and therefore according to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a container comprising a plurality of walls; wherein at least one of said walls is of double thickness in an upper part thereof, comprising an outer panel and inner panel in said upper part; wherein said inner panel is created by hingedly folding a flap inwardly into said container around a hinge line arranged towards the bottom of the container.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a container blank for erecting into a container comprising a plurality of walls, the container blank comprising a first, outer wall panel and a second, inner wall panel; wherein said second, inner wall panel is arranged such that it is hingedly foldable into the inside of the container during erecting around a hinge line arranged towards the bottom of the container to form a double thickness wall in an upper part of one of said walls in the erected container.

Preferably the inner panel is formed with a top flap which closes the container.

Preferably all the side walls of the container are formed with a double thickness in the manner above, and preferably each second, inner panel has a top flap.

In the preferred embodiment, the blank comprises a series of first, outer panels hingedly connected together and a series of second, inner panels hingedly connected together. Preferably only selected panels of the second series of panels are directly hingedly connected to the first series of panels. In a preferred embodiment, every other panel of the second series of panels is directly hingedly connected to the corresponding panel of the first series of panels.

Preferably the hinged connections take place at the front and rear walls of the container.

Preferably flaps forming the bottom of an erected container are hingedly attached to those panels of the first series of panels which are not hingedly connected to the panels of the second series of panels. Most preferably, edges of the bottom flaps and the corresponding second panels lie adjacent each other in the blank.

As mentioned above, printing is preferably applied to one surface of the container blank such that it may be observed on the outside of the container and the folded in panels. This provides printing on both an outside and an inside surface of a container without the need for potentially costly printing on both surfaces of the container blank.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a preferred container blank; Figure 2-1 shows a preferred container erected from the blank of Figure 1 in a close state; Figure 2-2 shows the container of Figure 2-1 during a first stage of opening; Figure 2-3 shows the container of Figures 2-1 and 2-2 during a second stage of opening; Figure 2-4 shows the container of Figures 2-1, 2-2 and 2-3 in an opened configuration; Figure 3 shows the bottom face of another preferred container blank; Figure 4 shows the blank of Figure 3 with the lower half folded along line 3-3 of Fig. 3 onto the upper half of that blank; Figure 5-1 shows a container erected from the blank of Figures 3 and 4 in a front perspective; Figure 5-2 shows the container of Figure 5-1 from a back perspective; Figure 5-3 shows the container of Figures 5-1 and 5-2 during opening; Figures 5-4 shows the container of Figures 5-1, 5-2 and 5-3 in an opened state in a front perspective; and Figures 5-5 shows the container of Figures 5-1, 5-2 and 5-3 in an opened state in a back perspective.

Figure 1 shows a blank 2 of paperboard, cardboard or other foldable sheet material for erecting into a - 6 transit and display container. The blank comprises a series of five panels 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 hingedly connected to each other. Blank 2 further comprises a series of top flaps 14,16,18 and 20 that are hingedly attached to panels 4,6,8 and 10 respectively via lines of perforations 22,24,26 and 28, and a series of bottom flaps 15, 17, 19, 21 also hingedly attached to panels 6, 8, 10 and 12. The panel 4 comprises a U-shaped line of perforations 30 which defines a removable flap 32. The panel 12 comprises an access opening 34.

Figure 2-1 shows a container 36 that has been erected from blank 2 in its closed configuration. The blank 2 is erected into a tubular form with the panel 12 arranged in front of and overlapping the panel 4 to give a double thickness front wall. The panels 4, 12 are glued to each other only in the area outside the line of perforations 30 in the inner panel 4. The top flaps 14,16,18 and 20 are folded over and closed for example by using adhesive tape, so as to form a lid 38. It should be noted that lid 38 is not attached to the outer front wall panel 12, but merely to the inner panel 4.

The line of perforations 30 in the inner front wall panel 4 is positioned and sized such that when the container is erected it lies wholly behind and is covered by the outer panel 12. In fact, the line of perforations is set back from the edge of the access opening by about 1-3 mm. Thus from the outside of the container only a part of the removable flap 32 of the inner panel 4 is visible. The remainder of panel 4 including the line of perforation 30 is covered by the outer panel 12.

Figure 2-2 shows a first stage of the process of opening the container 36. Firstly, the removable flap 32 is pressed inwardly, for example by shop personnel, so as to break the line of perforations 30 and detach it from the remainder of the inner panel 4. In an alternative embodiment the removable flap 32 may be configured such that it can be pulled outwardly such as to detach it from the remainder of the inner panel 4.

Then the lid 38 is separated from container 36 along the lines of perforation 22,24,26 and 28 as is shown in Fig. 2-3. The flap 32 remains attached to the flap 14 so that the flap and lid 38 can be removed as one piece.

Figure 2-4 shows the container 36 in its open state. Goods displayed for purchase in container 36 in this open state can be taken from the container through the opening defined by edge 34 or through the top of the container.

As described above, since the access opening defined in the outer panel 12 overlies the line of perorations 30 in the inner panel 4, the edge created by separating the flap 32 from the inner panel 4 along that line of perforation 30 is accordingly hidden from view by panel 12. Accordingly, the user will see a clean cut edge defined around the access opening 34 rather than an untidy and possibly damaged edge created along the line of perforations 30. The visual appearance of container 36 in its opened state is therefore improved.

Figure 3 shows a blank 60 of a container according to a further embodiment of the invention. Blank 60 comprises a first section 62 and a second section 64.

These sections are hingedly connected to each other along hinge lines 63 and 65.

Each of the first and second sections has a top face (which cannot be seen in Fig. 3) and a bottom face.

Fig. 3 shows the bottom faces of the first and second sections of blank 60. The first section 62 of blank 60 comprises panels 66,68,70 and 72, with bottom forming flaps 82,84,86 and 88 hingedly attached thereto. Second section 64 of blank 60 comprises panels 74,76,78 and 80, with top flaps 90,92,94 and 96 hingedly attached thereto via lines of perforation 98, 100 and 102 and a hinge line 106. The flaps 82 and 86 are separated from the panels 74 and 78 by cut lines 103 and 105. Tabs 106 and 108 are provided for securing panels 66 and 72 to each other during erecting the container.

An access opening 109 is defined in panel 68, while a removable front flap 124 is defined in panel 76. In addition, a rear opening 127 is defined in panel 72 and an opening flap 126 defined in panel 80.

A container 120 as shown in Fig. 5-1 to 5-5 is erected from blank 60 by folding the second section 64 of blank 60 relative to the first section 62 of blank 60 about hinge lines 63 and 65. Figure 4 shows the arrangement 106 of the blank after this folding step.

Surfaces that are part of the bottom face of first section 62 of the blank 60 or part of the bottom face of the second section 64 of the blank 60 are shown hatched.

Surfaces that are part of the top face of the first section 62 of the blank 60 or part of the second section 64 of blank 60 are shown plain. These latter surfaces are intended to be printed, e.g. for display purposes.

No part of the top surface of the first section 62 of blank 60 or of the bottom surface of the second section 64 of blank 60 is visible in Figure 4.

Figures 5-1 and 5-2 show perspective views of a container 120 erected from blank 60 in front and back perspectives respectively. The intermediate blank shown in Figure 4 is assembled into a tubular form, and the bottom flaps 82, 84, 86, 88 folded over and secured to close the bottom of the container. Product is then filled into the container and the top flaps 90,92, 94, 96 then secured together to close the top of the container.

Surfaces that are part of the bottom face of the first section 62 or that are part of the bottom face of the second section 64 are shown hatched throughout Figures 5-1 to 5-5. As can be seen from Figures 5-1 to 5-2 the outer surface of the container in lid 122, flap 124 and opening flap 126 of container 120 comprises the bottom face of the second section 62 of container blank i.e. these parts are unprinted.

Figures 5-3 shows the container 120 during opening.

In the opening process opening member 126 is separated from the remainder of panel 80 (which is not visible in the illustration of Figure 5-3) along the line of perforation 128. Thereafter lid 122 is separated from the remainder of the container 120 along lines of perforation 98 and 102. Panels 74 and 78 which formed part of the top face of the second section of container blank 60 can be seen on the inner surface of container after the lid is removed. Thus a user may see printed matter on the inner wall of the container as product is being removed from the container.

Figures 5-4 and 5-5 are perspective views of container 120 in its open or display state seen in a front and back perspective respectively with lid 122 fully detached from the remainder of the container along lines of perforation 98,100 and 102 and removable flap 124 fully detached from panel 76. It should be noted that in this embodiment, as in the earlier embodiment, the access opening 109 is slightly smaller that the flap 124 such as to cover the line of perforations 125 defining the flap 124. Thus when the flap 124 is removed, a clean access opening is produced, as in the earlier embodiment.

Opening of container 120 may of course be accomplished in the reverse order, by first detaching front closure member 124 from panel 76, followed by detaching lid 122 from the remainder of container 120 along lines of perforation 98 and 102 and final detachment of flap 126 from panel 80.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, it will be 10 understood by those skilled in the art that many changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the accompanying claims. 11

Claims

Claims: 1. A container comprising a plurality of walls; at least one of

said plurality of walls comprising an inner panel and an outer panel, said outer panel having an access opening formed therein; said inner panel comprising a line of weakness defining a section on said inner panel that can be separated from said inner panel to provide an opening in said inner panel in alignment with said access opening in said outer panel; wherein said line of weakness lies behind said outer panel so as to be substantially covered by said outer panel.
2. A container blank for erecting into a container; comprising a first panel and a second panel, said first panel and said second panel arranged such that in the erected container the first panel overlaps at least partially with the second panel and being arranged inside of the second panel, said second panel having an access opening formed therein; said first panel comprising a line of weakness defining a section on said first panel that can be separated from said first panel to provide an opening in said first panel in alignment with said access opening in said second panel in the erected container; wherein said line of weakness lies behind said second panel so as to be substantially covered by said second panel in the erected container.
3. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said line of weakness is set back between 1 and 3 mm from the edge of the access opening. - 12
4. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the edge of said access opening is arranged to extend substantially parallel to said line of weakness.
5. A container or container blank as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said first or inner panel and said second or outer panel are arranged at opposite ends of a series of panels of a or said container blank for erecting into a container.
6. A container or container blank as claimed in any one of claim 1 to 4, wherein said first or inner panel is directly hingedly connected to said second or outer panel.
7. A container comprising a plurality of walls; wherein at least one of said walls is of double thickness in an upper part thereof, and comprises an outer panel and inner panel in said upper part; wherein said inner panel is created by hingedly folding a flap inwardly into said container around a hinge line arranged towards the bottom of the container.
8. A container blank for erecting into a container comprising a plurality of walls, the container blank comprising a first, outer wall panel and a second inner wall panel; wherein said second, inner wall panel is arranged such that it is hingedly foldable into the inside of the container during erecting around a hinge line arranged towards the bottom of the container to form a double thickness wall in an upper part of one of said walls in the erected container.
9. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein the inner panel is formed with a top flap.
10. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 7, 8 or 9, wherein all of the side walls of the container are formed with a double thickness, having an outer panel and an inner panel in an upper part of the walls.
11. A container or container blank as claimed claim 10, wherein all of said inner panels comprise a top flap.
12. A container or container blank as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 11, wherein a or said blank for erecting into said container, comprises a series of first or inner panels and a series of second, outer panels.
13. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 12, wherein only selected panels of said second series of panels are directly hingedly connected to the first series of panels.
14. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 13, wherein every other panel of said second series of panels is directly hingedly connected to a corresponding panel of said first series of panels.
15. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 14, wherein said direct hinged connection takes place at the front and rear wall of the container in its erected state.
16. A container or container blank as claimed in claim 14, 15 or 16, wherein flaps forming the bottom of an - 14 erected container are hingedly attached to those panels of the first series of panels which are not hingedly connected to the panels of the second series of panels.
17. A container or container blank as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 16, wherein printing is applied to one surface of a or said container blank such that it may be observed on the outside of the container and the upper part of the inside of the container.
18. A container substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the accompanying drawings.
19. A container blank substantially as hereinbefore described and with reference to the accompanying drawings.