WO2013190568A1 - A package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism - Google Patents

A package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2013190568A1
WO2013190568A1 PCT/IN2013/000358 IN2013000358W WO2013190568A1 WO 2013190568 A1 WO2013190568 A1 WO 2013190568A1 IN 2013000358 W IN2013000358 W IN 2013000358W WO 2013190568 A1 WO2013190568 A1 WO 2013190568A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
package
casing
smoking articles
casing member
air
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IN2013/000358
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2013190568A4 (en
Inventor
Chitra GOWTHAMAN
Paul SHUKLA
Abraham MALINI
Original Assignee
Gowthaman Chitra
Shukla Paul
Abraham MALINI
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Gowthaman Chitra, Shukla Paul, Abraham MALINI filed Critical Gowthaman Chitra
Publication of WO2013190568A1 publication Critical patent/WO2013190568A1/en
Publication of WO2013190568A4 publication Critical patent/WO2013190568A4/en

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Classifications

    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
    • A24F—SMOKERS' REQUISITES; MATCH BOXES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES
    • A24F15/00—Receptacles or boxes specially adapted for cigars, cigarettes, simulated smoking devices or cigarettes therefor
    • A24F15/12—Receptacles or boxes specially adapted for cigars, cigarettes, simulated smoking devices or cigarettes therefor for pocket use
    • A24F15/14—Receptacles or boxes specially adapted for cigars, cigarettes, simulated smoking devices or cigarettes therefor for pocket use with appliances for releasing a single cigar or cigarette
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
    • B65D5/00—Rigid or semi-rigid containers of polygonal cross-section, e.g. boxes, cartons or trays, formed by folding or erecting one or more blanks made of paper
    • B65D5/42—Details of containers or of foldable or erectable container blanks
    • B65D5/72—Contents-dispensing means
    • B65D5/724—Internal fittings facilitating the discharge of contents, e.g. guiding panels, movable bottoms or lifting strips
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
    • B65D85/00—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials
    • B65D85/07—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials for compressible or flexible articles
    • B65D85/08—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials for compressible or flexible articles rod-shaped or tubular
    • B65D85/10—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials for compressible or flexible articles rod-shaped or tubular for cigarettes
    • B65D85/1009—Containers, packaging elements or packages, specially adapted for particular articles or materials for compressible or flexible articles rod-shaped or tubular for cigarettes provided with proffering means
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
    • B65D2203/00—Decoration means, markings, information elements, contents indicators
    • B65D2203/12—Audible, olfactory or visual signalling means

Definitions

  • the present invention generally relates to a package for smoking articles.
  • the present invention more particularly relates to a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism capable of automatically lifting the smoking articles and also maintaining freshness of the smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminants/moisture/temperature, with the help of airtight multiple chambers.
  • Packages for smoking articles such as cigarette, cigars, cigarillos or loose tobacco, exclusively but not limited thereto and includes any product made and sold in the tobacco industry, are known from the prior arts, where these packages are made from paperboard material or similar materials.
  • Many traditional packages for smoking articles are available in the market, where the user has to manually pick up one by one the smoking articles which are kept side by side inside casing of the package.
  • smokers or users usually use fingers to fetch one smoking article from the package. While picking up one smoking article, the remaining smoking articles inside the package comes into contact with the user's fingers and accidentally if the user's fingers are wet, the adjacent smoking articles also gets wet, which affects the freshness and quality of the smoking articles, particularly tobacco filled inside the smoking articles.
  • the smoking articles are generally made to the users with the sealed package maintained with freshness of the tobacco products.
  • the freshness of the tobacco drastically deteriorates since all the smoking articles in the package are come into contact with the atmospheric air, particularly contaminants and humidity/moisture content in the air.
  • the tobacco of the smoking articles in the package becomes lamentably wet or dry due to repeated opening and closing of the package.
  • these conventional packages for smoking articles are not provided with lifting features to automatically lift the smoking articles Upwardly from the casing of the package.
  • WO 2007/070993 discloses a pack for cigarettes which presents an articulable top cover bearing a differentiated closing system which allows the perfect closing of the packing, even when it is made of substantially soft and low grammage material, such as the soft cup type pack.
  • US2009/084694 discloses a cigarette packet with a packet body for containing cigarettes and a lid joined to the packet body via a hinge, each with a front panel, a rear panel and two opposing side panels, and at least one tab is provided on the lid and/or on the packet body, which extends beyond an imaginary connecting line on at least one side panel of the packet between the hinge and front lid bottom edge when the packet is closed.
  • WO2011/135340 discloses a cigarette pack comprises a box having a top face, a bottom face, and a plurality of longitudinal faces connecting the top face to the bottom face.
  • the longitudinal faces include a front face, a first bevel situated on one side of the front face and being attached to the front face by a first longitudinal fold line and a second bevel situated on the other side of the front face and being attached to the front face by a second longitudinal fold line.
  • the first and second fold lines are curved away from the centre of the front face such that the front face is at least partially concavely bowed in a longitudinal direction.
  • the circumference of the top face of the pack comprises at least one concavely curved segment situated along the edge of the top face and at least one of the front face and rear face, the at least one concavely curved segment being arranged to cause the at least one of the front face and rear face to bow inwardly towards the top of the pack.
  • the present invention provides a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of keeping the smoking articles being not exposed to air contammants/moisture/temperature even in case of repeated opening of the package by the user and thus achieving better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles.
  • An object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an airtight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and automatically lifting the smoking articles from the package casing.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and manually lifting the smoking articles from the package casing.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is simple and easy to manufacture and to assemble with the existing package of smoking articles in a cost effective manner.
  • Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of providing menthol flavor to the smoking articles by attaching a pad filled with menthol at the bottom portion of each cover member.
  • the present invention which achieves the objectives, relates to a package for smoking articles, comprising: a casing member having a front, back, two side and bottom sections that are arranged to define a space for accommodating multiple smoking articles, where the casing space is accessed through an open top face of the casing member.
  • a lid member having a front, back, two side and top sections is hingedly attached to the casing member in such a way that the lid member is movable with respect to the casing member for opening and enclosing the top face of the casing member.
  • An air-tight locking and lifting mechanism comprises at least one partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space by inserting through the open face of the casing member to split the casing space into multiple independent air-tight chambers, a plurality of pushing members each inserted and placed into each chamber to rest on the bottom section of the casing member in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each pushing member, and at least one cover member composed of a plurality of tearing portions that are respectively located and positioned in relation to the chambers of the casing member such that after inserting the smoking articles into the respective chambers to rest on the pushing members, the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member in such a way that the smoking articles in the respective chambers are forcibly pressed against resilient action of the respective pushing members to be in a compressed state in each chamber.
  • the package of the present invention is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and automatically lifting the smoking articles from the package casing. Further, once the tearing portions are separated from the cover member, the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members automatically lifts up the smoking articles from the chambers in the casing member for easy access of the smoking articles by the user.
  • Each pushing member is arranged with a resting portion and a resilient portion that are attached to each other to make the pushing members being positioned in a compressed state and an uncompressed state with respect to the bottom section of the casing member.
  • each pushing member One end of the resilient portion of each pushing member is attached to the lower surface of the resting portion, whereas other end of the resilient portion is rested on or affixed to the inner surface of the bottom section of the casing member.
  • the resting portion of each pushing member is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking articles are rested inside the package.
  • the resilient portion of each pushing member is formed as a zigzag or springy structure to accumulate resilient force in it while compressing for automatic upward lifting of the smoking articles rested on the resting portion of each pushing member to a desired height with respect to the top face edge of the casing member.
  • the tearing portions of the cover member are formed as perforated tearing portions, where the perforation of the tearing portions is made in such a way to withstand the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members when the pushing members are in compressed state.
  • the cover member is composed of a plurality of extended portions through which the cover member is affixed to the inner surface of the open top face of the casing member.
  • Each tearing portion is provided with an extended protrusion on its upper side so that the tearing portions are separated from the cover member by manually pulling its extended protrusions.
  • the configuration of each chamber in the casing member is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article.
  • the partition member is formed of a primary sheet layer and a plurality of secondary sheet layers in such a way that each secondary layer is intersected on the primary sheet layer in an upright position, in particular perpendicular to the surface of the primary sheet layer.
  • the dimension of the partition member is formed to be identical with the internal dimension of the casing space, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the casing member to make each chamber of the package to be in air-tight manner.
  • the package further comprises an inner wrapper attached to the inner surface of the casing space of the casing member, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the wrapper.
  • the package further comprises a pad filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member to maintain the smoking articles with menthol flavor inside the package.
  • the present invention which achieves the objectives, relates to a package for smoking articles, comprising: a casing member having a front, back, two side and bottom sections that are arranged to define a space for accommodating multiple smoking articles, where the casing space is accessed through an open top face of the casing member.
  • a lid member having a front, back, two side and top sections is hingedly attached to the casing member in such a way that the lid member is movable with respect to the casing member for opening and enclosing the top face of the casing member.
  • An air-tight locking and lifting mechanism comprises at least one partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space by inserting through the open face of the casing member to split the casing space into multiple independent air-tight chambers, a plurality of lifting members each located and positioned inside each chamber to rest on the bottom section of the casing member in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each lifting member, and at least one cover member composed of a plurality of tearing portions that are respectively located and positioned in relation to the chambers of the casing member such that at least a portion of each lifting member is respectively attached to at least a portion of each tearing portion of the cover member, and the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member after inserting the smoking articles in the respective chambers to rest on the respective lifting members to be in a lowered state in each chamber.
  • the package of the present invention is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and manually lifting the smoking articles from the package casing. Furthermore, once the tearing portions are separated from the cover member, the lifting members are pulled upwards by further pulling the tearing portions to manually lift up the smoking articles from the respective chambers in the casing member for easy access of the smoking articles by the user.
  • Each lifting member is arranged with a resting portion and a strip portion that are attached to each other to make the lifting members being positioned in a lowered state and a raised state with respect to the bottom section of the casing member.
  • each lifting member is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking articles are rested inside the package.
  • One end of the strip portion of each lifting member is attached to at least a portion of the resting portion, whereas other end of the strip portion of each lifting member is attached to at least a portion of the lower side of each tearing portion of the cover member.
  • each chamber in the casing member is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article.
  • the partition member is formed of a primary sheet layer and a plurality of secondary sheet layers in such a way that each secondary layer is intersected on the primary sheet layer in an upright position, in particular perpendicular to the surface of the primary sheet layer.
  • the dimension of the partition member is formed to be identical with the internal dimension of the casing space, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers of the partition member are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the casing member to make each chamber of the package to be in air-tight manner.
  • the tearing portions of the cover member are formed as perforated tearing portions.
  • the cover member is composed of a plurality of extended portions through which the cover member is affixed to the surface of the open top face of the casing member.
  • Each tearing portion is provided with an extended protrusion on its upper side so that the tearing portions are separated from the cover member by manually pulling its extended protrusions.
  • the package further comprises an inner wrapper attached to the inner surface of the casing space of the casing member, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers of the partition member are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the wrapper.
  • the package further comprises a pad filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member to maintain the smoking articles with menthol flavor inside the package.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view depicting a general appearance of a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 2 illustrates an isometric detailed view of a partition member of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric detailed view of a cover member of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of a pushing member having a smaller-width resilient portion, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 5 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member having the smaller-width resilient portion in association with a chamber of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 6 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of a pushing member having a larger-width resilient portion, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 7 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member having the larger-width resilient portion in association with the chamber of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 8 illustrates an assembled and partial cut view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the pushing member inside the package for smoking articles, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 9 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of a lifting member of an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism in association with the chamber of the package, in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates an assembled and partial cut view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the lifting member inside the package for smoking articles, in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view depicting a general appearance of a package (1000) for smoking articles (500) having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the present invention relates to a package (1000) that is designed for accommodating several smoking articles (500), i.e. cigarette.
  • the package (1000) is referred as cigarette package (1000) only for the purpose of understanding the present invention.
  • the cigarette package (1000) is formed as a conventional box-like container of substantially parallelepiped shape and is especially designed from cardboard for enveloping a set of smoking articles (500) such as cigarette, cigars, cigarillos or loose tobacco, exclusively but not limited thereto and includes any product made and sold in the tobacco industry.
  • the cigarette package (1000) is composed of a casing member (100) of which the uppermost face is open, and a lid member (150) hingedly associated with one edge of the uppermost open face of the casing member (100).
  • the casing member (100) is composed of a front section (102), a back section (104), two side sections (106, 108) and a bottom section (110), where the front and back sections (102, 104) are disposed parallel and mutually opposed, and the two side sections (106, 108) are disposed vertically and mutually opposed.
  • the front, back, two side and bottom sections (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) are especially designed as rectangular shape of sheet-like foldable cardboard material. These front, back and two side sections (102, 104, 106, 108) coincide respectively with the bottom section (110).
  • the front, back, two side and bottom sections (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) are folded up together to form this casing member (100) in such a way that the casing member (100) defines a space (101) for receiving the set of smoking articles (500), where the casing space (101) is accessed through the top edge or uppermost open face of the casing member (100).
  • the lid member (150) is composed of a lid front section (152), a lid back section (154), a lid top section (156) and two lid side sections (158, 160), where the lid front and lid back sections (152, 154) are disposed parallel and mutually opposed, and the two lid side sections (158, 160) are disposed vertically and mutually opposed.
  • the lid front, lid back and lid top sections (152, 154, 156) are especially designed as rectangular shape of sheet-like foldable cardboard material, whereas the two lid side sections (158, 160) are especially designed as right-angled trapezoidal shape of sheet-like foldable cardboard material.
  • the dimension of the lid front section (152) of the lid member (150) is larger than the dimension of the lid back section (154) of the lid member (150).
  • lid front, lid back and two lid side sections coincide respectively with the lid top section (156).
  • the two side sections (106, 108) of the casing member (100) correspond to the lid two side sections (158, 160) in terms of the contour and are mutually opposite.
  • the casing member front, back and bottom sections (102, 104, 110) and the lid front, back and top sections (152, 154, 156) respectively correspondence with each other and are mutually opposite.
  • the lid front, lid back, lid top and two lid side sections (152, 154, 156, 158, 160) are folded up together to form this lid member (150) in such a way that the lid member (150) defines a space (151) for closing the set of smoking articles (500).
  • the lid member (150) is hinged to the casing member (100) along an axis parallel with the longitudinal dimension of the top edge open face of the casing member (100).
  • the open edge of the lid back section (154) is hingedly attached to the open edge of the casing member's back section (104), so that the lid member (150) is movable with respect to the casing member (100) for opening and closing of the casing space (101)/uppermost open face of the casing member (100).
  • the outer surface of the front and two side sections (102, 106, 108) of the casing member (100) are provided with a groove portion (112) closer to its uppermost open face, so that the edges of the lid front section (152) and the two lid side sections (158, 160) of the lid member (150) are positioned and rested on the groove portion (1 12) in the casing member (100) while closing the casing space (101)/uppermost open face of the casing member (100) using the lid member (150).
  • the casing member (100) and the lid member (150) are designed as a single unit of sheet-like foldable cardboard material to form the package (1000).
  • the shape and dimensions of the casing member (100) and the lid member (150) can be designed based on the number of smoking articles (500) to be accommodated inside the casing space (101) of the cigarette package (1000).
  • the cigarette package (1000) of the present invention is arranged with an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism which is composed of a partition member (10), multiple pushing members (20, 20a) and a cover or wrapping member (30).
  • the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism placed in the cigarette package (1000) is designed and arranged to maintain the unused smoking articles (500) retained inside the package (1000) being not exposed to the atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, with the help of airtight multiple chambers (101a), and thus better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles (500) is achieved in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) as like as while packing.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates an isometric detailed view of the partition member (10) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the partition member (10) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism is placed and affixed into the inner surface of the casing space (101) defined by the casing member (100) after inserting the partition member (10) through the uppermost open face of the casing member (100), which splits the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) into multiple independent airtight chambers (101a).
  • the configuration of each independent chamber (101a) in the package casing member (100) is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article (500).
  • the partition member (10) is formed of a primary sheet layer (12) and a set of secondary sheet layers (14), where the primary sheet layer (12) and the secondary sheet layers (14) of the partition member (10) are especially formed in a rectangular shape of sheet-like cardboard material.
  • Each secondary sheet layer (14) is intersected on the primary sheet layer (12) in an upright position.
  • the secondary sheet layers (14) are placed and positioned perpendicular to both the side surfaces of the primary sheet layer (12).
  • each chamber (101a), in the package casing member (100), formed by the partition member (10) is air-tight in relation to other adjacent chambers (101a), which keeps at least one smoking article (500) inside one chamber (101a) in air-tight contact with respect to adjacent smoking article (500) in other chamber (101a).
  • an inner wrapper can be formed of sheet-like foldable paper material having a front section, a back section, a bottom section and two side sections, where the dimensions of the inner wrapper is identically formed in relation to the casing space (101) defined by the casing member (100) of the package (1000).
  • the inner wrapper is affixed (especially by means of adhesive material) to the inner surface of the casing space (101) in the package (1000) in such a way that all the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers (12, 14) are affixed and pasted to the inner surface of the front, back, side and bottom sections of the inner wrapper in an air-tight contact manner.
  • each chamber (101a), in the package casing member (100), formed by the partition member (10) is air-tight in relation to other adjacent chambers (101a), which keeps at least one smoking article (500) inside one chamber (101a) in air-tight contact with respect to adjacent smoking article (500) in other chamber (101a).
  • FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric detailed view of the cover member (30) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the cover member (30) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism is arranged with several tearing portions (32) each respectively positioned with respect to the independent airtight chambers (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the casing member (100).
  • the cover member (30) is designed as a rectangular shape of sheet-like cardboard or thick paper material with several extended portions (38) on it.
  • the cover member (30) is arranged with several tearing portions (32) on it, where the tearing portions (32) of the cover member (30) are formed with perforations (36), which can be referred as perforated tearing portions (32).
  • an extended protrusion (34) is provided on its upper side to assist the user to easily tear or remove the perforated tearing portions (32) from the cover member (30) by pulling the extended protrusions (34).
  • the cover member (30) is attached and affixed at the surface (especially inner surface) of the uppermost open face of the casing member (100) using the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30), where the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30) are especially provided with adhesive material for easy affixing of the cover member (30) to the casing member (100) of the package (1000).
  • a pad (not shown in figures) filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member (30) to keep the smoking article (500) with menthol flavor inside the package (1000).
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20) having a smaller-width resilient portion (24), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the pushing members (20) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism each located and positioned inside each independent chamber (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the casing member (100), and rested on the inner surface of the bottom section (110) of the casing member (100), in such a way that at least one smoking article (500) is rested on each pushing member (20).
  • Each pushing member (20) is arranged with a resting portion (22) and a resilient portion (24) that are attached to each other to cause the pushing members (20) being positioned in a compressed state and an uncompressed state.
  • the' resting portion (22) and the resilient portion (24) of the pushing members (20) are made of cardboard or thick paper material.
  • the resting portion (22) of the pushing member (20) is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking article (500) is rested at the upper surface of the resting portion (22).
  • the resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) is formed as a zigzag or springy structure to accumulate resilient force in it while compressing.
  • One end of the resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) is attached to the lower surface of the resting portion (22) of the pushing member (20), whereas other end of the resilient portion (24) is rested on or affixed to the inner surface of the bottom section (1 10) of the package casing member (100).
  • the resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) can be made of cardboard or coil spring or any other mechanism which provides sufficient resilient effect on the smoking articles (500) without affecting the scope of the present invention.
  • the resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) can be made of different width in accordance with requirement of pushing force required from the resilient portion (24) to upwardly lift the smoking articles (500) to a sufficient height for the user to easily access it.
  • the resilient portion (24) having two different widths small-width resilient portion (24) and larger-width resilient portion (24a) are discussed and illustrated in FIGS. 4-7. In FIG.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20a) having the larger-width resilient portion (24a), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the smoking articles (500) rested on the resting portion (22a) compress the larger-width resilient portion (24a) of the pushing member (20a) in the compressed state
  • the smoking articles (500) rested on the resting portion (22a) decompress the larger-width resilient portion (24a) of the pushing member (20a) in the uncompressed state.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20a) having the larger-width resilient portion (24a) in association with the chamber (101a) of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the width of the smaller-width resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) is equal to one-fourth width of the resting portion (22) of the pushing member (20), whereas the width of the larger-width resilient portion (24a) of the pushing member (20a) is equal to three-fourth width of the resting portion (22a) of the pushing member (20a).
  • FIG. 8 illustrates an assembled and partial cut view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the pushing member (20) inside the package (1000) for smoking articles (500), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • Assembling principle of the package (1000) in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention The partition member (10) is initially affixed to the inner surface of the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000) after inserting the partition member (10) through the uppermost open face of the casing member (100). Then, the pushing members (20 or 20a) are put inside each independent chamber (101a) formed by the partition member (10).
  • the smoking articles (500) are inserted into the respective chambers (101a) to rest on the resting portion (22 or 22a) of the pushing members (20 or 20a), and the cover member (30) is air-tightly affixed to seal the opening face of the casing member (100) in such a way that the smoking articles (500) placed inside the respective chambers (101a) are forcibly pressed against resilient action of the respective pushing members (20 or 20a), which makes the pushing members (20 or 20a) inside the respective chambers (101a) in the compressed state, as illustrated in FIG. 8.
  • the perforations (36) in the tearing portions (32) are made in such a way that it withstands the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members (20 or 20a) when the pushing members (20 or 20a) are in compressed state.
  • the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing member (20 or 20a) automatically lift up the smoking article (500) rested on it, from the chamber (101a), which facilitates the user to easily take out the smoking articles (500) from the package casing member (100).
  • the resilient action of the resilient portion (24 or 24a) of the pushing member (20 or 20a) can be designed in such a way that the pushing member (20 or 20a) automatically pushes the smoking article (500) upward to the sufficient height with respect to the edge of the opening face of the casing member (100), which facilitates the user to have easy access to the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) and thus achieving automatic lifting of the smoking articles (500) from the package casing member (100).
  • the package (1000) of the present invention achieves better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles (500) even in case of repeated opening and closing of the lid member (150) of the package (1000) in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) as like as while packing.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of a lifting member (40) of an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism in association with the chamber (101a) of the package (1000), in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism for the package (1000) is similarly arranged with a partition member (10) and a cover or wrapping member (30), but it is comprised with one lifting member (40) in place of one pushing member (20 or 20a) in each chamber (101a) used in the earlier embodiment of the present invention.
  • the partition member (10) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism having primary and secondary sheet layers (12, 14) is placed and affixed at the inner surface of the casing member space (101) after inserting the partition member (10) through the opening face of the casing member (100), which splits the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) into several airtight chambers (101a) to accommodate the smoking articles (500).
  • the cover member (30) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of this embodiment is also arranged with several perforated tearing portions (32) each respectively positioned with respect to the independent air-tight chambers (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the casing member (100).
  • an extended protrusion (34) is provided on its upper side to assist the user to easily tear or remove the perforated tearing portion (32) from the cover member (30) by pulling the extended protrusion (34).
  • the cover member (30) is attached and affixed at the surface (especially inner surface) of the uppermost open face of the casing member (100) using the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30), where the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30) are especially provided with adhesive material for easy affixing of the cover member (30) to the casing member (100) of the package (1000).
  • a pad (not shown in figures) filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member (30) to keep the smoking article (500) with menthol flavor inside the package (1000).
  • the detailed configuration of the cover member (30) is already explained in the earlier embodiment of the present invention.
  • the lifting members (40) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of this embodiment each located and positioned inside each independent air-tight chamber (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the package casing member (100) and rested on the inner surface of the bottom section (110) of the casing member (100), in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each lifting member (40).
  • Each lifting member (40) is arranged with a resting portion (42) and a strip portion (44) that are connected to each other to cause the lifting members (40) being positioned in a lowered state and a raised state through its strip portion (44).
  • the resting portion (42) of the lifting members (40) can be made of cardboard or thick paper material
  • the strip portion (44) of the lifting members (40) can be made of cardboard or wire or thick paper material, which has to provide sufficient lifting force on the smoking articles (500) without affecting the scope of the present invention.
  • the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40) is rested on the inner surface of the bottom section (110) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000), where the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40) is formed as a flat sheet structure so that the smoking article (500) is rested at the upper surface of the resting portion (42).
  • One end of the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) is attached to at least a portion of the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40), whereas other end of the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) is attached to at least a portion of the lower side of the tearing portion (32) of the cover member (30).
  • the smoking article (500) can be lifted upwardly through the lifting member (40) by further manually pulling of the extended protrusion (34) of the tearing portion (32) as the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) is attached to the tearing portion (32), as shown in FIG. 9.
  • the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) can be made of different dimension in accordance with requirement of lifting force required to upwardly lift the smoking articles (500) to the sufficient height for the user to easily access it.
  • the lowered state and raised state of the lifting members (40) aiding for manual upward lifting of the smoking articles (500) to the sufficient height is clearly visualized in FIG. 9 along with the air-tight chamber (101a) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000).
  • FIG. 10 illustrates an assembled view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the lifting member (40) inside the package (1000) for smoking articles (500), in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • Assembling principle of the package (1000) in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention The partition member (10) is initially affixed to the inner surface of the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000) after inserting the partition member (10) through the uppermost open face of the casing member (100). Then, the smoking articles (500) are positioned to rest on the resting portion (42) of the lifting members (40).
  • each lifting member (40) Since the strip portion (44) of each lifting member (40) is connected to each tearing portion (32) of the cover member (30), the lifting members (40) along with the smoking articles (500) are respectively inserted into the air-tight chambers (101a) formed by the partition member (10) until the lower side of the cover member (30) mates with the opening face of the casing member (100).
  • the cover member (30) is air-tightly affixed to the opening face of the casing member (100) for sealing the package casing member (100) in such a way that the smoking articles (500) placed inside the respective chambers (101a) are rested on the resting portion (42) of the respective lifting members (40), which makes the lifting members (40) inside the respective chambers ( 101 a) in the lowered state.
  • the strip portion (44) of each lifting member (40) connected to the tearing portion (32) is manually pulled upwards for lifting up the smoking article (500) rested on the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40) to the sufficient height with respect to the edge of the opening face of the casing member (100), which facilitates the user to easily take out the smoking articles (500) from the package casing member (100).
  • the package (1000) of the present invention achieves better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles (500) even in case of repeated opening and closing of the lid member (150) of the package (1000) in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) as like as while packing.

Abstract

The present invention relates to a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which comprises a partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space to split the casing space into multiple air-tight chambers, pushing members each inserted and placed into each chamber, and a cover member composed of tearing portions located and positioned in relation to the respective chambers, wherein after inserting the smoking articles into the respective chambers to rest on the pushing members, the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member in such a way that the smoking articles in the respective chambers are forcibly pressed against resilient action of the respective pushing members to be in a compressed state in each chamber. Thus, the package of the present invention is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and automatically lifting the smoking articles from the package casing.

Description

A PACKAGE FOR SMOKING ARTICLES HAVING AN AIR-TIGHT LOCKING
AND LIFTING MECHANISM
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a package for smoking articles. The present invention more particularly relates to a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism capable of automatically lifting the smoking articles and also maintaining freshness of the smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminants/moisture/temperature, with the help of airtight multiple chambers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Packages for smoking articles such as cigarette, cigars, cigarillos or loose tobacco, exclusively but not limited thereto and includes any product made and sold in the tobacco industry, are known from the prior arts, where these packages are made from paperboard material or similar materials. Many traditional packages for smoking articles are available in the market, where the user has to manually pick up one by one the smoking articles which are kept side by side inside casing of the package. In these traditional packages, smokers or users usually use fingers to fetch one smoking article from the package. While picking up one smoking article, the remaining smoking articles inside the package comes into contact with the user's fingers and accidentally if the user's fingers are wet, the adjacent smoking articles also gets wet, which affects the freshness and quality of the smoking articles, particularly tobacco filled inside the smoking articles. The smoking articles are generally made to the users with the sealed package maintained with freshness of the tobacco products. The freshness of the tobacco drastically deteriorates since all the smoking articles in the package are come into contact with the atmospheric air, particularly contaminants and humidity/moisture content in the air. The tobacco of the smoking articles in the package becomes lamentably wet or dry due to repeated opening and closing of the package. Further, these conventional packages for smoking articles are not provided with lifting features to automatically lift the smoking articles Upwardly from the casing of the package. WO 2007/070993 discloses a pack for cigarettes which presents an articulable top cover bearing a differentiated closing system which allows the perfect closing of the packing, even when it is made of substantially soft and low grammage material, such as the soft cup type pack. US2009/084694 discloses a cigarette packet with a packet body for containing cigarettes and a lid joined to the packet body via a hinge, each with a front panel, a rear panel and two opposing side panels, and at least one tab is provided on the lid and/or on the packet body, which extends beyond an imaginary connecting line on at least one side panel of the packet between the hinge and front lid bottom edge when the packet is closed. WO2011/135340 discloses a cigarette pack comprises a box having a top face, a bottom face, and a plurality of longitudinal faces connecting the top face to the bottom face. The longitudinal faces include a front face, a first bevel situated on one side of the front face and being attached to the front face by a first longitudinal fold line and a second bevel situated on the other side of the front face and being attached to the front face by a second longitudinal fold line. The first and second fold lines are curved away from the centre of the front face such that the front face is at least partially concavely bowed in a longitudinal direction. The circumference of the top face of the pack comprises at least one concavely curved segment situated along the edge of the top face and at least one of the front face and rear face, the at least one concavely curved segment being arranged to cause the at least one of the front face and rear face to bow inwardly towards the top of the pack.
The drawback of these conventional packages of smoking articles is that these packages are not provided with air-tight and lifting features of smoking articles. In respect of these conventional packages of smoking articles, while the user manually fetches one smoking article from the package, it is not possible and difficult to keep the adjacent/remaining smoking articles in the package being not coming in contact with the user's fingers, and also maintain the adjacent/remaining smoking articles in the package being not exposed to the atmospheric air. These can result in deterioration of freshness and quality of the tobacco/smoking articles in the package due to repeated using of the package by the user. Further, the user has to manually lift the smoking articles upwardly from the casing of the package, which is a cumbersome exercise.
Therefore, there is a need of an improved, simple and less costly package for smoking article having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to the atmospheric air, particularly the contaminant and the moisture content in the air, and automatically lifting the smoking articles from the package casing. Further, it is also capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the aforementioned existing state of the arts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of keeping the smoking articles being not exposed to air contammants/moisture/temperature even in case of repeated opening of the package by the user and thus achieving better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles. An object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an airtight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and automatically lifting the smoking articles from the package casing.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and manually lifting the smoking articles from the package casing. Another object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is simple and easy to manufacture and to assemble with the existing package of smoking articles in a cost effective manner.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, which is capable of providing menthol flavor to the smoking articles by attaching a pad filled with menthol at the bottom portion of each cover member.
According to one aspect, the present invention, which achieves the objectives, relates to a package for smoking articles, comprising: a casing member having a front, back, two side and bottom sections that are arranged to define a space for accommodating multiple smoking articles, where the casing space is accessed through an open top face of the casing member. A lid member having a front, back, two side and top sections, is hingedly attached to the casing member in such a way that the lid member is movable with respect to the casing member for opening and enclosing the top face of the casing member. An air-tight locking and lifting mechanism comprises at least one partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space by inserting through the open face of the casing member to split the casing space into multiple independent air-tight chambers, a plurality of pushing members each inserted and placed into each chamber to rest on the bottom section of the casing member in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each pushing member, and at least one cover member composed of a plurality of tearing portions that are respectively located and positioned in relation to the chambers of the casing member such that after inserting the smoking articles into the respective chambers to rest on the pushing members, the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member in such a way that the smoking articles in the respective chambers are forcibly pressed against resilient action of the respective pushing members to be in a compressed state in each chamber. Thus, the package of the present invention is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and automatically lifting the smoking articles from the package casing. Further, once the tearing portions are separated from the cover member, the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members automatically lifts up the smoking articles from the chambers in the casing member for easy access of the smoking articles by the user. Each pushing member is arranged with a resting portion and a resilient portion that are attached to each other to make the pushing members being positioned in a compressed state and an uncompressed state with respect to the bottom section of the casing member. One end of the resilient portion of each pushing member is attached to the lower surface of the resting portion, whereas other end of the resilient portion is rested on or affixed to the inner surface of the bottom section of the casing member. The resting portion of each pushing member is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking articles are rested inside the package. The resilient portion of each pushing member is formed as a zigzag or springy structure to accumulate resilient force in it while compressing for automatic upward lifting of the smoking articles rested on the resting portion of each pushing member to a desired height with respect to the top face edge of the casing member. In addition, the tearing portions of the cover member are formed as perforated tearing portions, where the perforation of the tearing portions is made in such a way to withstand the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members when the pushing members are in compressed state. The cover member is composed of a plurality of extended portions through which the cover member is affixed to the inner surface of the open top face of the casing member. Each tearing portion is provided with an extended protrusion on its upper side so that the tearing portions are separated from the cover member by manually pulling its extended protrusions. The configuration of each chamber in the casing member is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article. The partition member is formed of a primary sheet layer and a plurality of secondary sheet layers in such a way that each secondary layer is intersected on the primary sheet layer in an upright position, in particular perpendicular to the surface of the primary sheet layer. The dimension of the partition member is formed to be identical with the internal dimension of the casing space, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the casing member to make each chamber of the package to be in air-tight manner. The package further comprises an inner wrapper attached to the inner surface of the casing space of the casing member, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the wrapper. The package further comprises a pad filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member to maintain the smoking articles with menthol flavor inside the package.
According to another aspect, the present invention, which achieves the objectives, relates to a package for smoking articles, comprising: a casing member having a front, back, two side and bottom sections that are arranged to define a space for accommodating multiple smoking articles, where the casing space is accessed through an open top face of the casing member. A lid member having a front, back, two side and top sections, is hingedly attached to the casing member in such a way that the lid member is movable with respect to the casing member for opening and enclosing the top face of the casing member. An air-tight locking and lifting mechanism comprises at least one partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space by inserting through the open face of the casing member to split the casing space into multiple independent air-tight chambers, a plurality of lifting members each located and positioned inside each chamber to rest on the bottom section of the casing member in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each lifting member, and at least one cover member composed of a plurality of tearing portions that are respectively located and positioned in relation to the chambers of the casing member such that at least a portion of each lifting member is respectively attached to at least a portion of each tearing portion of the cover member, and the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member after inserting the smoking articles in the respective chambers to rest on the respective lifting members to be in a lowered state in each chamber. Thus, the package of the present invention is capable of maintaining freshness of the tobacco/smoking articles by preventing exposure of the smoking articles retained inside the package to atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, and manually lifting the smoking articles from the package casing. Furthermore, once the tearing portions are separated from the cover member, the lifting members are pulled upwards by further pulling the tearing portions to manually lift up the smoking articles from the respective chambers in the casing member for easy access of the smoking articles by the user. Each lifting member is arranged with a resting portion and a strip portion that are attached to each other to make the lifting members being positioned in a lowered state and a raised state with respect to the bottom section of the casing member. The resting portion of each lifting member is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking articles are rested inside the package. One end of the strip portion of each lifting member is attached to at least a portion of the resting portion, whereas other end of the strip portion of each lifting member is attached to at least a portion of the lower side of each tearing portion of the cover member. After separating the tearing portions from the cover member, the strip portions of the lifting members are pulled upwards using the tearing portions for manual upward lifting of the smoking articles rested on the resting portions of the lifting members to a desired height with respect to the top face edge of the casing member.
In addition, the configuration of each chamber in the casing member is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article. The partition member is formed of a primary sheet layer and a plurality of secondary sheet layers in such a way that each secondary layer is intersected on the primary sheet layer in an upright position, in particular perpendicular to the surface of the primary sheet layer. The dimension of the partition member is formed to be identical with the internal dimension of the casing space, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers of the partition member are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the casing member to make each chamber of the package to be in air-tight manner. The tearing portions of the cover member are formed as perforated tearing portions. The cover member is composed of a plurality of extended portions through which the cover member is affixed to the surface of the open top face of the casing member. Each tearing portion is provided with an extended protrusion on its upper side so that the tearing portions are separated from the cover member by manually pulling its extended protrusions. The package further comprises an inner wrapper attached to the inner surface of the casing space of the casing member, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers of the partition member are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the wrapper. The package further comprises a pad filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member to maintain the smoking articles with menthol flavor inside the package.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The advantages and features of the present invention will become more clearly apparent from the following description which refers to the accompanying drawings given as non-restrictive examples only and in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view depicting a general appearance of a package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 illustrates an isometric detailed view of a partition member of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric detailed view of a cover member of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of a pushing member having a smaller-width resilient portion, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member having the smaller-width resilient portion in association with a chamber of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of a pushing member having a larger-width resilient portion, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member having the larger-width resilient portion in association with the chamber of the package, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 illustrates an assembled and partial cut view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the pushing member inside the package for smoking articles, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of a lifting member of an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism in association with the chamber of the package, in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 10 illustrates an assembled and partial cut view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the lifting member inside the package for smoking articles, in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 illustrates an isometric view depicting a general appearance of a package (1000) for smoking articles (500) having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The present invention relates to a package (1000) that is designed for accommodating several smoking articles (500), i.e. cigarette. Hereafter, the package (1000) is referred as cigarette package (1000) only for the purpose of understanding the present invention. The cigarette package (1000) is formed as a conventional box-like container of substantially parallelepiped shape and is especially designed from cardboard for enveloping a set of smoking articles (500) such as cigarette, cigars, cigarillos or loose tobacco, exclusively but not limited thereto and includes any product made and sold in the tobacco industry. The cigarette package (1000) is composed of a casing member (100) of which the uppermost face is open, and a lid member (150) hingedly associated with one edge of the uppermost open face of the casing member (100).
The casing member (100) is composed of a front section (102), a back section (104), two side sections (106, 108) and a bottom section (110), where the front and back sections (102, 104) are disposed parallel and mutually opposed, and the two side sections (106, 108) are disposed vertically and mutually opposed. The front, back, two side and bottom sections (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) are especially designed as rectangular shape of sheet-like foldable cardboard material. These front, back and two side sections (102, 104, 106, 108) coincide respectively with the bottom section (110). The front, back, two side and bottom sections (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) are folded up together to form this casing member (100) in such a way that the casing member (100) defines a space (101) for receiving the set of smoking articles (500), where the casing space (101) is accessed through the top edge or uppermost open face of the casing member (100).
The lid member (150) is composed of a lid front section (152), a lid back section (154), a lid top section (156) and two lid side sections (158, 160), where the lid front and lid back sections (152, 154) are disposed parallel and mutually opposed, and the two lid side sections (158, 160) are disposed vertically and mutually opposed. The lid front, lid back and lid top sections (152, 154, 156) are especially designed as rectangular shape of sheet-like foldable cardboard material, whereas the two lid side sections (158, 160) are especially designed as right-angled trapezoidal shape of sheet-like foldable cardboard material. Further, the dimension of the lid front section (152) of the lid member (150) is larger than the dimension of the lid back section (154) of the lid member (150). These lid front, lid back and two lid side sections (152, 154, 158, 160) coincide respectively with the lid top section (156). The two side sections (106, 108) of the casing member (100) correspond to the lid two side sections (158, 160) in terms of the contour and are mutually opposite. Likewise, the casing member front, back and bottom sections (102, 104, 110) and the lid front, back and top sections (152, 154, 156) respectively correspondence with each other and are mutually opposite. The lid front, lid back, lid top and two lid side sections (152, 154, 156, 158, 160) are folded up together to form this lid member (150) in such a way that the lid member (150) defines a space (151) for closing the set of smoking articles (500). The lid member (150) is hinged to the casing member (100) along an axis parallel with the longitudinal dimension of the top edge open face of the casing member (100). In particular, the open edge of the lid back section (154) is hingedly attached to the open edge of the casing member's back section (104), so that the lid member (150) is movable with respect to the casing member (100) for opening and closing of the casing space (101)/uppermost open face of the casing member (100). In addition, the outer surface of the front and two side sections (102, 106, 108) of the casing member (100) are provided with a groove portion (112) closer to its uppermost open face, so that the edges of the lid front section (152) and the two lid side sections (158, 160) of the lid member (150) are positioned and rested on the groove portion (1 12) in the casing member (100) while closing the casing space (101)/uppermost open face of the casing member (100) using the lid member (150). The casing member (100) and the lid member (150) are designed as a single unit of sheet-like foldable cardboard material to form the package (1000). The shape and dimensions of the casing member (100) and the lid member (150) can be designed based on the number of smoking articles (500) to be accommodated inside the casing space (101) of the cigarette package (1000). The cigarette package (1000) of the present invention is arranged with an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism which is composed of a partition member (10), multiple pushing members (20, 20a) and a cover or wrapping member (30). The air-tight locking and lifting mechanism placed in the cigarette package (1000) is designed and arranged to maintain the unused smoking articles (500) retained inside the package (1000) being not exposed to the atmospheric air/contaminant/moisture/temperature, with the help of airtight multiple chambers (101a), and thus better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles (500) is achieved in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) as like as while packing.
FIG. 2 illustrates an isometric detailed view of the partition member (10) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The partition member (10) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism is placed and affixed into the inner surface of the casing space (101) defined by the casing member (100) after inserting the partition member (10) through the uppermost open face of the casing member (100), which splits the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) into multiple independent airtight chambers (101a). The configuration of each independent chamber (101a) in the package casing member (100) is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article (500). The partition member (10) is formed of a primary sheet layer (12) and a set of secondary sheet layers (14), where the primary sheet layer (12) and the secondary sheet layers (14) of the partition member (10) are especially formed in a rectangular shape of sheet-like cardboard material. Each secondary sheet layer (14) is intersected on the primary sheet layer (12) in an upright position. In particular, the secondary sheet layers (14) are placed and positioned perpendicular to both the side surfaces of the primary sheet layer (12).
The shape and size of the partition member (10) are matched and identical with the internal dimension of the package casing space (101), so that all the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers (12, 14) are affixed (especially by means of adhesive material) to the inner surface of the front, back, side and bottom sections (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000) in an air-tight contact manner. This results in that each chamber (101a), in the package casing member (100), formed by the partition member (10) is air-tight in relation to other adjacent chambers (101a), which keeps at least one smoking article (500) inside one chamber (101a) in air-tight contact with respect to adjacent smoking article (500) in other chamber (101a). It is not limited that only one partition member (10) is inserted in the casing member (100) of the package (1000), however, the similar form of desired number of partition members (10) can be inserted into the casing space (101) in order to make the package (1000) for accommodating desired number of smoking articles (500) without affecting the scope of the present invention. Additionally, an inner wrapper (not shown in figures) can be formed of sheet-like foldable paper material having a front section, a back section, a bottom section and two side sections, where the dimensions of the inner wrapper is identically formed in relation to the casing space (101) defined by the casing member (100) of the package (1000). The inner wrapper is affixed (especially by means of adhesive material) to the inner surface of the casing space (101) in the package (1000) in such a way that all the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers (12, 14) are affixed and pasted to the inner surface of the front, back, side and bottom sections of the inner wrapper in an air-tight contact manner. This results in that each chamber (101a), in the package casing member (100), formed by the partition member (10) is air-tight in relation to other adjacent chambers (101a), which keeps at least one smoking article (500) inside one chamber (101a) in air-tight contact with respect to adjacent smoking article (500) in other chamber (101a).
FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric detailed view of the cover member (30) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The cover member (30) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism is arranged with several tearing portions (32) each respectively positioned with respect to the independent airtight chambers (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the casing member (100). In particular, the cover member (30) is designed as a rectangular shape of sheet-like cardboard or thick paper material with several extended portions (38) on it. The cover member (30) is arranged with several tearing portions (32) on it, where the tearing portions (32) of the cover member (30) are formed with perforations (36), which can be referred as perforated tearing portions (32). In at least a portion of each tearing portion (32), an extended protrusion (34) is provided on its upper side to assist the user to easily tear or remove the perforated tearing portions (32) from the cover member (30) by pulling the extended protrusions (34). The cover member (30) is attached and affixed at the surface (especially inner surface) of the uppermost open face of the casing member (100) using the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30), where the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30) are especially provided with adhesive material for easy affixing of the cover member (30) to the casing member (100) of the package (1000). Additionally, a pad (not shown in figures) filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member (30) to keep the smoking article (500) with menthol flavor inside the package (1000).
FIG. 4 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20) having a smaller-width resilient portion (24), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The pushing members (20) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism each located and positioned inside each independent chamber (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the casing member (100), and rested on the inner surface of the bottom section (110) of the casing member (100), in such a way that at least one smoking article (500) is rested on each pushing member (20). Each pushing member (20) is arranged with a resting portion (22) and a resilient portion (24) that are attached to each other to cause the pushing members (20) being positioned in a compressed state and an uncompressed state. In particular, the' resting portion (22) and the resilient portion (24) of the pushing members (20) are made of cardboard or thick paper material. The resting portion (22) of the pushing member (20) is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking article (500) is rested at the upper surface of the resting portion (22). The resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) is formed as a zigzag or springy structure to accumulate resilient force in it while compressing. One end of the resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) is attached to the lower surface of the resting portion (22) of the pushing member (20), whereas other end of the resilient portion (24) is rested on or affixed to the inner surface of the bottom section (1 10) of the package casing member (100). In particular, the resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) can be made of cardboard or coil spring or any other mechanism which provides sufficient resilient effect on the smoking articles (500) without affecting the scope of the present invention. The resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) can be made of different width in accordance with requirement of pushing force required from the resilient portion (24) to upwardly lift the smoking articles (500) to a sufficient height for the user to easily access it. In the present invention, the resilient portion (24) having two different widths (smaller-width resilient portion (24) and larger-width resilient portion (24a)) are discussed and illustrated in FIGS. 4-7. In FIG. 4, in the packed condition, the smoking articles (500) rested on the resting portion (22) compress the smaller- width resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) in the compressed state, whereas in the unpacked condition, the smoking articles (500) rested on the resting portion (22) decompress the smaller-width resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) in the uncompressed state. The compressed state and uncompressed state of the pushing member (20) aiding for automatic upward lifting of the smoking articles (500) to the sufficient height is clearly visualized, along with the airtight chamber (101a) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000), in FIG. 5, which illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20) having the smaller- width resilient portion (24) in association with the chamber (101a) of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 illustrates a front view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20a) having the larger-width resilient portion (24a), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. At the same time, in FIG. 6, in the packed condition, the smoking articles (500) rested on the resting portion (22a) compress the larger-width resilient portion (24a) of the pushing member (20a) in the compressed state, whereas in the unpacked condition, the smoking articles (500) rested on the resting portion (22a) decompress the larger-width resilient portion (24a) of the pushing member (20a) in the uncompressed state. The compressed state and uncompressed state of the pushing member (20a) aiding for automatic upward lifting of the smoking articles (500) to the sufficient height is clearly visualized, along with the air-tight chamber (101a) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000), in FIG. 7, which illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of the pushing member (20a) having the larger-width resilient portion (24a) in association with the chamber (101a) of the package (1000), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The width of the smaller-width resilient portion (24) of the pushing member (20) is equal to one-fourth width of the resting portion (22) of the pushing member (20), whereas the width of the larger-width resilient portion (24a) of the pushing member (20a) is equal to three-fourth width of the resting portion (22a) of the pushing member (20a).
FIG. 8 illustrates an assembled and partial cut view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the pushing member (20) inside the package (1000) for smoking articles (500), in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Assembling principle of the package (1000) in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention: The partition member (10) is initially affixed to the inner surface of the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000) after inserting the partition member (10) through the uppermost open face of the casing member (100). Then, the pushing members (20 or 20a) are put inside each independent chamber (101a) formed by the partition member (10). Thereafter, the smoking articles (500) are inserted into the respective chambers (101a) to rest on the resting portion (22 or 22a) of the pushing members (20 or 20a), and the cover member (30) is air-tightly affixed to seal the opening face of the casing member (100) in such a way that the smoking articles (500) placed inside the respective chambers (101a) are forcibly pressed against resilient action of the respective pushing members (20 or 20a), which makes the pushing members (20 or 20a) inside the respective chambers (101a) in the compressed state, as illustrated in FIG. 8. The perforations (36) in the tearing portions (32) are made in such a way that it withstands the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members (20 or 20a) when the pushing members (20 or 20a) are in compressed state.
Once the perforated tearing portion (32) is tore or removed from the cover member (30) by manually pulling the extended protrusion (34), the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing member (20 or 20a) automatically lift up the smoking article (500) rested on it, from the chamber (101a), which facilitates the user to easily take out the smoking articles (500) from the package casing member (100). The resilient action of the resilient portion (24 or 24a) of the pushing member (20 or 20a) can be designed in such a way that the pushing member (20 or 20a) automatically pushes the smoking article (500) upward to the sufficient height with respect to the edge of the opening face of the casing member (100), which facilitates the user to have easy access to the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) and thus achieving automatic lifting of the smoking articles (500) from the package casing member (100). Further, since the remaining unused smoking articles (500) retained inside the package (1000) are still in air-tight and not exposed to the atmospheric air, the package (1000) of the present invention achieves better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles (500) even in case of repeated opening and closing of the lid member (150) of the package (1000) in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) as like as while packing.
FIG. 9 illustrates an isometric detailed view depicting working principle of a lifting member (40) of an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism in association with the chamber (101a) of the package (1000), in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In another embodiment of the present invention, the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism for the package (1000) is similarly arranged with a partition member (10) and a cover or wrapping member (30), but it is comprised with one lifting member (40) in place of one pushing member (20 or 20a) in each chamber (101a) used in the earlier embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment of the present invention, initially the partition member (10) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism having primary and secondary sheet layers (12, 14) is placed and affixed at the inner surface of the casing member space (101) after inserting the partition member (10) through the opening face of the casing member (100), which splits the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) into several airtight chambers (101a) to accommodate the smoking articles (500). All the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers (12, 14) of the partition member (10) are in air-tight contact with the inner surface of the front, back, side and bottom sections (102, 104, 106, 108, 110) of the package casing member (100), which makes each chamber (101a) of the package (1000) to be in air-tight manner, where the detailed configuration of the partition member (10) is already explained in the earlier embodiment of the present invention. Similarly, the cover member (30) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of this embodiment is also arranged with several perforated tearing portions (32) each respectively positioned with respect to the independent air-tight chambers (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the casing member (100). In at least a portion of each tearing portion (32), an extended protrusion (34) is provided on its upper side to assist the user to easily tear or remove the perforated tearing portion (32) from the cover member (30) by pulling the extended protrusion (34). The cover member (30) is attached and affixed at the surface (especially inner surface) of the uppermost open face of the casing member (100) using the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30), where the extended portions (38) of the cover member (30) are especially provided with adhesive material for easy affixing of the cover member (30) to the casing member (100) of the package (1000). Additionally, a pad (not shown in figures) filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member (30) to keep the smoking article (500) with menthol flavor inside the package (1000). The detailed configuration of the cover member (30) is already explained in the earlier embodiment of the present invention. The lifting members (40) of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism of this embodiment each located and positioned inside each independent air-tight chamber (101a) formed, by the partition member (10), in the package casing member (100) and rested on the inner surface of the bottom section (110) of the casing member (100), in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each lifting member (40). Each lifting member (40) is arranged with a resting portion (42) and a strip portion (44) that are connected to each other to cause the lifting members (40) being positioned in a lowered state and a raised state through its strip portion (44). In particular, the resting portion (42) of the lifting members (40) can be made of cardboard or thick paper material, whereas the strip portion (44) of the lifting members (40) can be made of cardboard or wire or thick paper material, which has to provide sufficient lifting force on the smoking articles (500) without affecting the scope of the present invention.
In the assembled package (1000), the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40) is rested on the inner surface of the bottom section (110) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000), where the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40) is formed as a flat sheet structure so that the smoking article (500) is rested at the upper surface of the resting portion (42). One end of the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) is attached to at least a portion of the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40), whereas other end of the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) is attached to at least a portion of the lower side of the tearing portion (32) of the cover member (30). Once the tearing portion (32) is removed or separated from the cover member (30), the smoking article (500) can be lifted upwardly through the lifting member (40) by further manually pulling of the extended protrusion (34) of the tearing portion (32) as the strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) is attached to the tearing portion (32), as shown in FIG. 9. The strip portion (44) of the lifting member (40) can be made of different dimension in accordance with requirement of lifting force required to upwardly lift the smoking articles (500) to the sufficient height for the user to easily access it. The lowered state and raised state of the lifting members (40) aiding for manual upward lifting of the smoking articles (500) to the sufficient height is clearly visualized in FIG. 9 along with the air-tight chamber (101a) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000).
FIG. 10 illustrates an assembled view of the air-tight locking and lifting mechanism with the lifting member (40) inside the package (1000) for smoking articles (500), in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Assembling principle of the package (1000) in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention: The partition member (10) is initially affixed to the inner surface of the casing space (101) of the casing member (100) of the package (1000) after inserting the partition member (10) through the uppermost open face of the casing member (100). Then, the smoking articles (500) are positioned to rest on the resting portion (42) of the lifting members (40). Since the strip portion (44) of each lifting member (40) is connected to each tearing portion (32) of the cover member (30), the lifting members (40) along with the smoking articles (500) are respectively inserted into the air-tight chambers (101a) formed by the partition member (10) until the lower side of the cover member (30) mates with the opening face of the casing member (100). Then, the cover member (30) is air-tightly affixed to the opening face of the casing member (100) for sealing the package casing member (100) in such a way that the smoking articles (500) placed inside the respective chambers (101a) are rested on the resting portion (42) of the respective lifting members (40), which makes the lifting members (40) inside the respective chambers ( 101 a) in the lowered state.
Once the perforated tearing portion (32) is tore or removed from the cover member (30) by manually pulling the extended protrusion (34), the strip portion (44) of each lifting member (40) connected to the tearing portion (32) is manually pulled upwards for lifting up the smoking article (500) rested on the resting portion (42) of the lifting member (40) to the sufficient height with respect to the edge of the opening face of the casing member (100), which facilitates the user to easily take out the smoking articles (500) from the package casing member (100). Further, since the remaining unused smoking articles (500) retained inside the package (1000) are still in air-tight and not exposed to the atmospheric air, the package (1000) of the present invention achieves better preservation of tobacco/smoking articles (500) even in case of repeated opening and closing of the lid member (150) of the package (1000) in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the smoking articles (500) in the package (1000) as like as while packing.
Though the present invention was shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments, such are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not to be construed as limitation thereof and various modifications of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, all examples and conditional language recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the present invention and concepts contributed by the inventors to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. It is therefore not intended that the present invention be limited to the disclosed embodiments or details thereof, and the present invention includes all variations and/or alternative embodiments within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIM:
1. A package for smoking articles, comprising:
a casing member having a front, back, two side and bottom sections that are arranged to define a space for accommodating multiple smoking articles, where the casing space is accessed through an open top face of the casing member;
a lid member having a front, back, two side and top sections, hingedly attached to the casing member in such a way that the lid member is movable with respect to the casing member for opening and enclosing the top face of the casing member; and
an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, comprising:
at least one partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space by inserting through the open face of the casing member to split the casing space into multiple independent air-tight chambers;
a plurality of pushing members each inserted and placed into each chamber to rest on the bottom section of the casing member in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each pushing member; and
at least one cover member composed of a plurality of tearing portions that are respectively located and positioned in relation to the chambers of the casing member such that after inserting the smoking articles into the respective chambers to rest on the pushing members, the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member in such a way that the smoking articles in the respective chambers are forcibly pressed against resilient action of the respective pushing members to be in a compressed state in each chamber.
2. The package as claimed in claim 1 , wherein once the tearing portions are separated from the cover member, the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members automatically lifts up the smoking articles from the chambers in the casing member for easy access of the smoking articles by the user.
3. The package as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein each pushing member is arranged with a resting portion and a resilient portion that are attached to each other to make the pushing members being positioned in a compressed state and an uncompressed state with respect to the bottom section of the casing member.
4. The package as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein one end of the resilient portion of each pushing member is attached to the lower surface of the resting portion, whereas other end of the resilient portion is rested on or affixed to the inner surface of the bottom section of the casing member.
5. The package as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the resting portion of each pushing member is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking articles are rested inside the package.
6. The package as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the resilient portion of each pushing member is formed as a zigzag or springy structure to accumulate resilient force in it while compressing for automatic upward lifting of the smoking articles rested on the resting portion of each pushing member to a desired height with respect to the top face edge of the casing member.
7. The package as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 6, wherein the tearing portions of the cover member are formed as perforated tearing portions, where the perforation of the tearing portions is made in such a way to withstand the upward resilient force exerted by the pushing members when the pushing members are in compressed state.
8. The package as claimed in claim 1, wherein the configuration of each chamber in the casing member is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article.
9. The package as claimed in claim 1, wherein the partition member is formed of a primary sheet layer and a plurality of secondary sheet layers in such a way that each secondary layer is intersected on the primary sheet layer in an upright position, in particular perpendicular to the surface of the primary sheet layer.
10. The package as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dimension of the partition member is formed to be identical with the internal dimension of the casing space, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the casing member to make each chamber of the package to be in air-tight manner.
11. The package as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an inner wrapper attached to the inner surface of the casing space of the casing member, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the wrapper.
12. The package as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover member is composed of a plurality of extended portions through which the cover member is affixed to the surface of the open top face of the casing member.
13. The package as claimed in claim 1, wherein each tearing portion is provided with an extended protrusion on its upper side so that the tearing portions are separated from the cover member by manually pulling its extended protrusions.
14. The package as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a pad filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member to maintain the smoking articles with menthol flavor inside the package.
15. A package for smoking articles, comprising:
a casing member having a front, back, two side and bottom sections that are arranged to define a space for accommodating multiple smoking articles, where the casing space is accessed through an open top face of the casing member;
a lid member having a front, back, two side and top sections, hingedly attached to the casing member in such a way that the lid member is movable with respect to the casing member for opening and enclosing the top face of the casing member; and
an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism, comprising:
at least one partition member affixed to the inner surface of the casing space by inserting through the open face of the casing member to split the casing space into multiple independent air-tight chambers;
a plurality of lifting members each located and positioned inside each chamber to rest on the bottom section of the casing member in such a way that at least one smoking article is rested on each lifting member; and
at least one cover member composed of a plurality of tearing portions that are respectively located and positioned in relation to the chambers of the casing member such that at least a portion of each lifting member is respectively attached to at least a portion of each tearing portion of the cover member, and the cover member is air-tightly affixed to the casing member to seal the open top face of the casing member after inserting the smoking articles in the respective chambers to rest on the respective lifting members to be in a lowered state in each chamber.
16. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein once the tearing portions are separated from the cover member, the lifting members are pulled upwards by further pulling the tearing portions to manually lift up the smoking articles from the respective chambers in the casing member for easy access of the smoking articles by the user.
17. The package as claimed in claim 15 or 16, wherein each lifting member is arranged with a resting portion and a strip portion that are attached to each other to make the lifting members being positioned in a lowered state and a raised state with respect to the bottom section of the casing member.
18. The package as claimed in any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the resting portion of each lifting member is formed as a flat sheet structure on which the smoking articles are rested inside the package.
19. The package as claimed in any one of claims 15 to 18, wherein one end of the strip portion of each lifting member is attached to at least a portion of the resting portion, whereas other end of the strip portion of each lifting member is attached to at least a portion of the lower side of each tearing portion of the cover member.
20. The package as claimed in any one of claims 15 to 19, wherein after separating the tearing portions from the cover member, the strip portions of the lifting members are pulled upwards using the tearing portions for manual upward lifting of the smoking articles rested on the resting portions of the lifting members to a desired height with respect to the top face edge of the casing member.
21. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein the configuration of each chamber in the casing member is formed to accommodate at least one smoking article.
22. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein the partition member is formed of a primary sheet layer and a plurality of secondary sheet layers in such a way that each secondary layer is intersected on the primary sheet layer in an upright position, in particular perpendicular to the surface of the primary sheet layer.
23. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein the dimension of the partition member is formed to be identical with the internal dimension of the casing space, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers of the partition member are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the casing member to make each chamber of the package to be in air-tight manner.
24. The package as claimed in claim 15, further comprising an inner wrapper attached to the inner surface of the casing space of the casing member, so that the edges of the primary and secondary sheet layers of the partition member are air-tightly affixed to the inner surface of the wrapper.
25. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein the tearing portions of the cover member are formed as perforated tearing portions.
26. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein the cover member is composed of a plurality of extended portions through which the cover member is affixed to the surface of the open top face of the casing member.
27. The package as claimed in claim 15, wherein each tearing portion is provided with an extended protrusion on its upper side so that the tearing portions are separated from the cover member by manually pulling its extended protrusions.
28. The package as claimed in claim 15, further comprising a pad filled with menthol is attached at the lower surface of the cover member to maintain the smoking articles with menthol flavor inside the package.
PCT/IN2013/000358 2012-06-21 2013-06-06 A package for smoking articles having an air-tight locking and lifting mechanism WO2013190568A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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IN2456/CHE/2012 2012-06-21
IN2456CH2012 2012-06-21

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