GB2422368A

GB2422368A - Dispensing of elongate articles such as cigarettes from a packet

Info

Publication number: GB2422368A
Application number: GB0501103A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Gary Dean Shepherd
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-01-19
Filing date: 2005-01-19
Publication date: 2006-07-26
Anticipated expiration: 2025-01-19
Also published as: GB0501103D0; GB2422368B

Abstract

A container for elongate articles such as cigarettes comprises a body with an open end having article retaining means 3, and a displacement member 4 at a closed end of the container which is operable when the retaining means is in an inoperative position to cause an article to project from the open end. The displacement member 4 may become upwardly bowed at its centre to push articles up, such bowing being caused by finger pressure 9a, 9b on sides of the container as shown and/or due to resilience of the member when no longer held down by the retaining means acting along the articles. The body of the container may have lines of weakness 6a to 6f to facilitate its reversible deformation inwardly when dispensing an article. Parts of the body may themselves be resilient to enhance reversible deformation and/or serve as the displacement member.

Description

CONTAINER FOR ELONGATE ARTICLES

The present invention relates to a container for elongate articles and, in particular, a container for cigarettes.

Cigarette packets or containers are well known and commonly come in two forms (i e. a "soft-pack" the body of which consists of paper, and a "hard- pack', the body of which consists of card or cardboard).

In either of the above types of packets, when such packet is full, it is difficult for a user to remove cigarettes from said packet. Further, even after removal of one or more cigarettes, there is still a difficulty associated with trying to remove subsequent cigarettes.

Similar types of containers are known for storing similarly shaped products, e.g. cigars, pencils and women's sanitary articles.

The present invention seeks to provide for a container for cigarettes or other articles having advantages over known such containers.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a container for elongate articles comprising: a body portion for housing articles and open at one end for the removal of the articles therefrom; a displacement member located remote from said open end and adjacent to a closed end of said body portion; retaining means located at said open end of said body portion and moveable between a first position and a second position allowing for removal of the articles from the container, and arranged for retaining said articles within said body portion when in said first position, and wherein said displacement member is operable to present said articles at the open end of the body portion when said retaining means is in said second position.

Preferably, said body portion is provided with lines of weakness which allow said body portion to reversibly deform inwardly under the action of inwardly directed pressure exerted on said body portion by a user.

Further; said displacement member is formed by a surface of said closed end of said body portion.

Alternatively, said displacement member comprises a first planar member arranged to deform from a first position, where a plane of the first planar member is substantially parallel to a plane of said closed end of said body portion and said articles are in a stored position, to a second position where said first planar member is deformed towards said open end of said body portion and where said articles are displaced so as to be presented from said open end of said body portion.

Also, deformation of the first planar member, when said first planar member is deformed towards said open end of said body portion, is a substantially curved deformation.

Advantageously said first planar member is arranged to deform from said first position to said second position under the action of inwardly directed pressure exerted on said body portion by a user, said first planar member being arranged to return to said first position Upon removal of said pressure.

Conveniently, said retaining means, when in said closed position, is arranged to act upon said articles which, in turn, act upon said first planar member to retain said first planar member in said first position, and when said retaining means is moved to said open position, the action of said retaining means on said articles is removed, and said first planar member acts upon said articles to present said articles at said open end of said body portion.

Alternatively, at least one wall of said body portion is resilient so as to allow said body portion to reversibly deform inwardly under the action of inwardly directed pressure exerted on said body portion by a user and, under the action of said inwardly directed pressure, to cause said member to act upon said articles such that they are projected so as to be presented from said open end of said body portion.

Alternatively, a first pair of opposite walls of said body portion are arranged to deform under an inwardly directed pressure exerted by a user and, as a consequence of such deformation, to project said articles so as to be presented from said open end of said body portion, and a second pair of opposite walls of said body portion are arranged to deform under a different inwardly directed pressure exerted by a user in order to retract said articles from the open end of said body portion to a stored position within said body portion and to return the first pair of opposite walls from a deformed state to a normal state.

Preferably, said retaining means is hingedly attached to said body portion Further, said retaining means is integral with said body portion.

Also, said retaining means comprises a lid portion.

Conveniently, said container further comprises a second planar member, said second planar member being formed with a plurality of holes for receiving said articles therethrough, said plate being arranged to either overlay said open end of said body portion in order to cover said open end, orto be located within said main body portion at a position spaced from said open end.

Preferably, said articles comprise smokers' articles.

Further, said smokers' articles comprise cigarettes.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a blank for forming a container for elongate articles as described above.

The present invention is described further hereinafter, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. IA illustrates a perspective view of a cigarette container according to a first embodiment; Fig. lB illustrates a front view of the cigarette container according to the first embodiment; Fig. 2A illustrates a perspective view of the cigarette container of the first embodiment with pressure being applied to the sides of the container; Fig. 2B illustrates a front view of the cigarette container of the first embodiment with pressure being applied to the sides of the container; Fig. 3A illustrates a cigarette container according to a second embodiment of the p resent invention; and Fig. 3B illustrates a front view of the cigarette container according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

In Fig. 1A, there is illustrated a cigarette container 1 which comprises a main body portion 2 and a lid portion 3. The lid portion 3 is hingedly attached to the main body portion 2 such that the lid 3 can move between a first, closed, position whereby cigarettes contained within said cigarette container 1 are covered, and a second, open, position where cigarettes contained within said cigarette container I are exposed to allow for user selection and removal.

The main body portion 2 is a hollow parallelepiped and is open at one end thereof (i e., the end from which cigarettes are to be removed). The lid portion 3 is hingedly attached to the main body portion 2 at this open end The cigarette container I also comprises a resilient member 4 located within said main body portion 2 adjacent a closed end of said main body portion 2 (i.e. remote from said open end of said main body portion 2). In the configuration shown in Fig. 1A, the resilient member 4 is substantially flat and is arranged parallel to an end of said main body portion 2 forming said closed end of said main body portion 2.

The cigarette container I also comprises a spacer means 5 which is located at least in the region of the open end of said main body portion 2. The spacer means 5 comprises a sheet, the perimeter of which corresponds in dimensions to the perimeter of the open end of the said main body portion 2 such that the spacer means, when aligned with said open end, covers the said open end. Said sheet of said spacer means 5 is formed with a plurality of holes 5A which serve to allow cigarettes contained within the container to protrude therethrough, and also to space the cigarettes from one another at suitable distances.

The spacer means 5 may alternatively be formed so as to have a greater depth than a mere "sheet", and/or to be provided as a plurality of such spacer means.

Each of the four "long" faces of the parallelepipecl forming the main body portion 2 are scored lengthwise in parallel to the longitudinal axis of the parallelepiped centrally across said face. Further, the closed end face of said main body portion 2 is also scored centrally along its short and long axes The purpose of such scored lines 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6F will be referred to in relation to Fig. 2.

In Fig. 1B, there is illustrated the cigarette container 1 of Fig. 1A as viewed from the front. The container 1 is shown with cigarettes 7 contained therein Also, it can be seen from this figure that in the space formed between the resilient member 4 and the closed end face of the main body portion 2 there is a separator 8 positioned therebetween which abuts both the resilient member 4 and the closed end face of the main body portion 2 to maintain a constant gap therebetween.

Fig. 2A illustrates the cigarette container I of Fig. 1A and 1 B in the situation where a user applies pressure to the side faces of said cigarette container 1. Such inwardly directed pressure is represented by arrows 9A, 9B in the figure. It can be seen from this figure that the action of the inwardly acting pressure causes the resilient member 4 to buckle upwardly in a generally curved manner and thereby deform in towards the open end of said main body portion 2 of the container 1. Scored lines 6A to 6F serve, under the action of this inwardly acting pressure, to allow the shape of the main body portion 2 to deform and thereby deform the resilient member 4.

Alternatively, in another embodiment, scored lines 6A and 60 are not present on the main body portion 2, and the main body portion 2 is allowed to deform by way of scored lines 6B, 6D, 6E and 6F only.

As can be seen in Fig. 2B, which illustrates a front end view of the cigarette container 1 of Fig. 2A under pressure, the deformation of the resilient member 4 urges the cigarettes 7 upwardly thereby causing the cigarettes to protrude from the open end of said main body portion 2. It can be seen that the longitudinal side faces of the main body portion 2 are deformed inwardly, which, in turn, causes the closed end face of the main body portion 2 to buckle inwardly, and the action of said buckling on said separator 8, and the inwardly acting pressure at the ends of the resilient member 4, causes the said resilient member 4 to deform towards the open end of said main body portion 2.

Due to the curved deformation of the resilient member 4, cigarettes 7 which are located closer to the centre of the cigarette container 1 will protrude further through said spacer means 5 than cigarettes which are located near the side edges of said cigarette container 1. Causing the cigarettes 7 to protrude in such a differential manner allows the user to more easily remove a cigarette from the cigarette container 1.

Such deformation is elastic (i.e. reversible), and once the pressure is removed, the resilient member serves to return the container to its normal configuration.

In Fig 3A, there is illustrated a second embodiment of the present invention. Illustrated is a cigarette container 10, and like reference numerals are Lised to refer to parts which correspond to parts previously described in relation to Figs 1 and 2.

In this second embodiment, illustrated in Fig. 3A, the cigarette container is shown with the lid 3 of the cigarette container closed. In such a condition, the resilient member 4 is flat, each of the cigarettes 7 protrude beyond the open end of the main body portion 2 by the same amount, and the ends of the cigarettes which protrude from the open end of the main body portion 2 are enclosed within the lid 3 of the cigarette container 10.

Fig. 3B shows the cigarette container 10 of Fig. 3A, but once the lid 3 of the cigarette container io has been opened As can be seen, the opening of the lid 3 from its position covering the protruding ends of cigarettes 7 allows the resilient member 4 to deform upwardly in an arcuate manner towards the open end of the main body portion 2 (in the same fashion as in the first embodiment) such that the cigarettes are projected so as to be presented from the open end of the main body portion 2.

In this embodiment the lid 3 is arranged to act upon the cigarettes to return the resilient member 4 to a flat condition when Closing the container.

However, once the action of the lid 3 is removed (i.e. by opening the lid 3 of the Cigarette container 10), the resilient member 4 is allowed to deform and thereby again present the remaining cigarettes from the open end of the main body portion 2.

Of course, in alternative arrangements, other cylindrical (or even prismatic) articles could be contained within the container, such as cigars, pencils/crayons or women's sanitary articles.

Further, the resilient member may be arranged such that cigarettes near to a side edge (or both side edges) of the cigarette container protrude further out of said cigarette container than those near the centre of the container when the resilient member deforms.

In a further alternative embodiment, at least one of the walls of the main body portion 2 are formed, or provided, with resilient sections which serve to act in place of the resilient member 4, and allow deformation of said main body portion 2 under inwardly acting pressure such that a closed end of said main body portion 2 acts Upwardly to present articles contained within the main body portion 2 from the open end of said main body portion 2. Once said inwardly acting pressure is removed from said main body portion 2, the resilient sections in said at least one wall act to return the main body portion 2 to its undeformed state. In such an alternative embodiment, the resilient member 4 is replaced with a planar member which is located in place of said resilient member 4 and it is upon this which the closed end of said main body portion 2 acts.

In a yet further embodiment, the main body portion 2 does not comprise any resilient sections. A planar member (such as in the above embodiment) is provided in said main body portion 2, but the action of moving articles contained within the main body portion 2 is provided by way of movable walls of the main body portion. Opposite walls of the main body portion 2 are arranged to act in pairs. Therefore, when an external pressure is exerted upon a first pair of oppositely facing walls to force such walls towards one another, the movement of said oppositely facing walls as a pair is arranged to present said articles contained within said main body portion 2 from the open end of the main body portion 2 for selection by a user. When an external pressure is exerted on the other (i. e. second) pair of oppositely facing walls, to force such walls towards one another, the movement of this other pair of oppositely facing walls as a pair is arranged to retract the articles from the open end of said main body portion to a stored position within the main body portion 2 and to return the first pair of, now deformed, oppositely facing walls to their original, undeformed, state.

In any one or more of the above embodiments, the container may be formed of a plastic material. Use of such material is advantageous in that it increases the longevity of the container and allows the container to be reused.

Further, the container may be formed by injection moulding techniques, and the material of the container may possess resilient qualities as required for the intended use of the container.

The spacer means of any one or more of the above embodiments may also be integral with or comprise the main body portion of the container, and may be formed of the same materials as those discussed above in relation to the container.

Claims

1 A container for elongate articles, comprising a body portion for housing articles and open at one end for the removal of the articles therefrom, a displacement member located remote from said open end and adjacent to a closed end of said body portion; retaining means located at said open end of said body portion and moveable between a first position and a second position allowing for removal of the articles from the container, and arranged for retaining said articles within said body portion when in said first position, and wherein said displacement member is operable to present said articles at the open end of the body portion when said retaining means is in said second position.

2. A container according to Claim 1, wherein said body portion is provided with lines of weakness which allow said body portion to reversibly deform inwardly under the action of inwardly directed pressure exerted on said body portion by a user.

3 A container according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said displacement member is formed by a surface of said closed end of said body portion.

4 A container according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said displacement member comprises a first planar member arranged to deform from a first position, where a plane of the first planar member is substantially parallel to a plane of said closed end of said body portion and said articles are in a stored position, to a second position where said first planar member is deformed towards said open end of said body portion and where said articles are displaced so as to be presented from said open end of said body portion.

5. A container according to Claim 4, wherein deformation of the first planar member, when said first planar member is deformed towards said open end of said body portion, is a substantially curved deformation

6 A container according to Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein said first planar member is arranged to deform from said first position to said second position under the action of inwardly directed pressure exerted on said body portion by a user, said first planar member being arranged to return to said first position upon removal of said pressure.

7 A container according to any one or more of Claims 4 to 6, wherein said retaining means, when in said closed position, is arranged to act upon said articles which, in turn, act upon said first planar member to retain said first planar member in said first position, and when said retaining means is moved to said open position, the action of said retaining means on said articles is removed, and said first planar member acts upon said articles to present said articles at said open end of said body portion.

8 A container according to any one or more of Claims 1 to 3, wherein at least one wall of said body portion is resilient so as to allow said body portion to reversibly deform inwardly under the action of inwardly directed pressure exerted on said body portion by a user and, under the action of said inwardly directed pressure, to cause said member to act upon said articles such that they are projected so as to be presented from said open end of said body portion

9 A container according to any one or more of Claims 1 to 3, wherein a first pair of opposite walls of said body portion are arranged to deform under an inwardly directed pressure exerted by a user and, as a consequence of such deformation, to project said articles so as to be presented from said open end of said body portion, and a second pair of opposite walls of said body portion are arranged to deform under a different inwardly directed pressure exerted by a user in order to retract said articles from the open end of said body portion to a stored position within said body portion and to return the first pair of opposite walls from a deformed state to a normal state.

10. A container according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said retaining means is hingedly attached to said body portion.

11. A container according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said retaining means is integral with said body portion.

12. A container according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said retaining means comprises a lid portion.

13. A container according to any one or more of the preceding claims, further comprising a second planar member, said second planar member being formed with a plurality of holes for receiving said articles therethrough, said plate being arranged to either overlay said open end of said body portion in order to cover said open end, or to be located within said main body portion at a position spaced from said open end.

14. A container according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said articles comprise smokers' articles.

A container according to Claim 14, wherein said smokers' articles comprise cigarettes.

16 A blank for forming a container for articles according to any one or more of the preceding claims 17 A container for articles substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, or as illustrated in, Figures 1 B, 1 B, 2A, 2B, 3A or 3B of the accompanying drawings 18. A blank for forming a container for articles substantially as herein before described with reference to, or as illustrated in, Figures 1 B, 1 B, 2A, 2B, 3A or 3B of the accompanying drawings.