WO1993017931A1

WO1993017931A1 - Foldable box with internal flexible enveloppe and reclosable pouring spout

Info

Publication number: WO1993017931A1
Application number: PCT/FR1993/000198
Authority: WO
Inventors: François Chaygneaud-Dupuy
Original assignee: Chaygneaud Dupuy Francois
Priority date: 1992-03-03
Filing date: 1993-02-26
Publication date: 1993-09-16
Also published as: EP0628009A1; FR2688200B1; FR2688200A1; CN1079439A

Abstract

The object of the invention is a box comprised of an external enveloppe (24, 25; 31, 35, 36) and an internal enveloppe (1) configured like a tubular transversally sealed sheath (3) characterized in that the pouring spout is formed in one of the two upper corners (5) of the tubular sheath (1) which are delimited at the extremities of the transverse seal (3) by means of a cutting (6) made of a semi-rigid material and arranged flush with said seal (3) and overlapping the line (4) which joins the extremities facing the upper and lower sealings, and the upper closing lugs (31, 35, 36) of the external enveloppe are provided with means (32, 37) for access to said corner (5), whereas the sidewall (26) of the box is provided of a detachable flap (28) which forms a notch (29) for the passage and extension of the pouring spout. Application to foldable packages, particularly for dry, granular, powdery or liquid products.

Description

FOLDABLE BOX WITH FLEXIBLE INTERNAL ENCLOSURE WITH CLOSABLE SPOUT

The present invention relates to a foldable packaging for dry, granular, pulverulent or liquid products, of the type comprising a foldable box containing an internal flexible envelope in which the product is sealed and provided with a resealable pouring spout.

Document FR-A-2,071,733 discloses a cardboard packaging provided internally with a flexible bag. The packaging, in the form of a box, includes a flap which can be opened during first use in order to extract part of the sachet which the o ^" cuts to form a pouring spout.

Such a spout, informal, does not hold, is not at all practical for use and does not give satisfaction, either with regard to the payment of the product or with regard to reclosing whose tightness is illusory. By the document FR-A-2.644.430 is proposed a foldable box with internal flexible envelope and resealable pouring spout The spout is conformed in one of the closing lugs of the box and the interior envelope is glued at least on all around the beak. In addition to the fact that the integration of the spout into one of the legs makes the structure of the foldable box more complex, its assembly and its closure, the need to place the interior flexible envelope very precisely at the right of the spout. and sticking it properly all around the latter, makes the manufacturing process for such packaging even more complex and involves the use of special machines. Furthermore, such a pouring spout, shaped in the material of the box, is rigid or semi-rigid and therefore does not have the flexibility that would be desirable to best conform the spout for optimal flow of the product. The present invention aims to eliminate the drawbacks of known devices and to propose a new design of spout, more practical and flexible to use, more effective, suitable for filling the bag or internal envelope as well before its insertion into the box. packaging that are inserted during the installation and do not require special machines for placing the internal envelopes and making the spouts.

To this end, the subject of the invention is a foldable box with an internal flexible envelope with a resealable pouring spout, comprising a rigid or semi-rigid external envelope comprising four faces each extended by two opposite closing tabs and an internal envelope in the form of a sheath. tubular sealed transversely at its upper and lower ends, characterized in that: - the pouring spout is formed in one of two upper corners of the tubular sheath defined at the ends of the transverse sealing, using a cutout made in a semi-rigid material and placed flush with said seal and straddling the line joining the ends opposite the upper and lower seals, and

- The upper closing tabs of the outer envelope are provided with means of access to said corner provided with said cutout, while the side wall of the box is provided with. right of said cutout, a detachable flap forming a notch allowing the passage and deployment of the spout.

Such packaging has a number of substantial advantages.

Since the spout is produced no longer on the rigid outer casing but on the flexible inner casing by bringing in a semi-rigid cut, the design of the outer casing is simplified and that of the internal casing is not modified since the beak is actually shaped thanks to an added element, in particular by gluing, which is a simple cut, special in its configuration but simple to carry out, easily applicable on the internal flexible envelope by a simple machine of the labeling type, before sealing said sheath.

According to one embodiment, the cut has a general rectangular or square shape and is provided with a groove facilitating its shaping, with pre-cuts serving as a guide for tearing the internal envelope in line with the corner point forming a pouring spout. and peripheral notches allowing a hooking of the cutout on the edges of said passage indentation and deployment of the pouring spout.

The cut has, for example, a width which is appreciably equal to that of the small lateral faces of the external envelope and, in the folded position of the box with its internal envelope filled, lies astride the edge of the box delimited between a small face side and the top face.

In this embodiment, the part of the cut folded back parallel to the top face of the box is advantageously sandwiched between one of the long side flaps, which is provided with an appropriate cut allowing the deployment of the spout, and the two other adjacent flaps of which said access means are constituted by detachable parts produced by pre-cutting. Said precuts used for guiding the tearing of the inner envelope are constituted by a line, for example in a V, delimiting the spout orifice of the spout arranged in the center and in the upper part of the cut, the ends of which end in notches located opposite a similar notch forming a tear-off primer formed in the upper sealing strip of the internal flexible envelope.

Such a design of the pouring spout retains its total integrity in the flexible casing, in particular in terms of mechanical strength and sealing, which in no way are weakened or weakened.

The wall of the pouring spout is in fact constituted by the wall of the internal flexible envelope, in one of the upper corners, after cutting the latter by tearing, the externally plated cutting acting as a mold. comforter giving its volume, its positioning and its resistance to said pouring spout.

The semi-rigid nature of the cutout material as well as the shape and positioning of the spout in the notch allow the spout to be easily closed after use by simply flattening the outlet orifice, the spout retaining its external shape.

Since the pouring spout is formed simply by adding a cut in the general shape of a label to the external face of the internal flexible envelope, this cut is advantageously applied using a labeling machine, either flat on the sheet to constitute said envelope, before the formation of the tubular sheath, or after formation of the sheath and completion of the longitudinal sealing and before the upper transverse sealing.

Other characteristics and advantages will emerge from the description which follows of a preferred embodiment of the box according to the invention, description given by way of example only and with reference to the appended drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a partial perspective view of an internal flexible envelope to be inserted in a foldable cardboard box, provided with a cutout according to the invention constituting a pouring spout; - Figure 2 is a plan view of the blank of Figure 1;

- Figure 3 is a partial perspective view of the upper part of the flexible envelope of Figure 1 in parallelepiped shape; ; - Figure 4 is a plan view of a cardboard blank to constitute a box or outer envelope according to the invention and capable of receiving the flexible envelope of Figure 3;

- Figures 5 and 6 illustrate the flexible envelope of Figure 4 in place inside the box of Figure 3 folded;

- Figure 7 is a _. enlarged detail view of the packaging complex of Figure 6;

Figure 8 illustrates the external appearance of the packaging of the invention, completely closed; Figures 9 to 12 illustrate various phases of opening the box and forming the spout;

Figure 13 illustrates the mode of reclosing the pourer be after use, and - Figure 14 illustrates an alternative embodiment of access means to the spout provided on the box.

FIG. 1 shows a flexible bag made up of a tubular sheath 1 formed from a thin sheet of a suitable thermoplastic material, sealed along a longitudinal strip 2 parallel to the generatrices of the sheath and two transverse strips, the upper band 3 is only shown.

The sealing strip 3 is perpendicular to the strip as well as, at its two ends, to the line symbolized by joining the two opposite ends of the upper sealing strip 3 and lower respectively.

The heat-sealed sheath 1 thus formed defines, at the two ends of the transverse sealing strip 3 when it is in volume, two corners 5 of generally conical shape, one of which is intended to constitute a pouring spout.

To this end, in accordance with the invention, there is added, preferably by gluing, a cutout 6, shown flat on FIG. 2, made of a semi-rigid material such as a sheet of suitable thickness of a material plastic or paper coated with plastic.

In the embodiment shown, the cutout 6 has a generally substantially square shape, is provided with two perpendicular central grooves 7 and 8, with a V-shaped notch in the middle of the upper edge 10, V-shaped notches 11 in the middle of the lateral edges 12, of two joined V-shaped notches 13, in the middle of the lower edge 14 and of a V-shaped pre-cut 15 in the upper half-part 6a of the cut, the ends of said pre-cut 15 are ending with V notches 16 on the upper edge 10.

The notches 11 are connected, by grooves 17, the notch 9 and, by grooves 18, to the twin notches 13 the grooves 17 and 18 extending along diagonals of small squares delimited by the grooves 7 and 8. The twin notches 13 define between them a point 19 whose sides are in alignment with said grooves 18.

One of the sides of the notches 16 is in alignment with the pre-cut line in V 15 so as to delimit a detachable part 20 of the cut 6, including the notch 9 and having a V shape.

In FIG. 1, two generators of the sheath-bag 1 corresponding to the two edges of the envelope 1 are shown at 21 once filled with product and shaped (FIG. 4) in a parallelepiped of dimensions corresponding to those of the cardboard box which must welcome him.

The cutout 6 has a width equal to the distance between the two generators 21 above, that is to say substantially the width of the small lateral side of the box in which will be received the flexible envelope l.

The cutout 6, advantageously coated on one side with an adhesive substance, is glued to the external wall of the sealed envelope 1 so that, once all the seals (2,3} have been made, it is astride said line 4, with the edge 10 flush with the transverse sealing strip 3.

The crease 8 coincides with the line 4, the edges 12 with the generators 21 and the crease 7 with the future edge of the envelope 1 filled and shaped as a parallelepiped (FIG. 4) corresponding to the internal dimensions of the receiving box (FIG. 5).

The cutout 6 is advantageously applied to the envelope

1 using a labeling machine, either flat before the formation of the tubular sheath, or after formation of the sheath and completion of the longitudinal sealing 2 and before the transverse sealing (3).

FIG. 3 illustrates the flexible envelope 1 filled with a dry, granular, pulverulent or liquid product and shaped into a rectangular parallelepiped with a view to its insertion in a folding parallelepiped box.

To this end, the envelope 1 is shaped so as to define two small lateral faces, one of which (22) is delimited by the lines or edges 21 and the upper face of which is a rectangle in the axis of which extends the sealing strip 3, folded against said upper face. The corner 5 is flattened in the shape of a triangle by folding down the angles of the cutout 6 around the grooves 17.

The notch 9 thus releases the extreme tip 23 of the envelope 1. The corner 5 thus flattened will be folded against the upper face of the rectangular envelope 1 during insertion into the foldable box and closing of the latter. .

FIG. 4 represents a box according to the invention intended to receive internally the flexible envelope of FIG. 3.

The cut and creased cardboard blank shown in this FIG. 4 comprises two large lateral faces 24 and 25, two small lateral faces 26 and 27, all extended at each end by closure flaps.

The structure of the box is traditional and only the upper closure flaps and one of the small side faces are shaped, at the height of the pouring spout carried by the flexible internal envelope 1, so as to allow access to the spout and its deployment.

To this end, said small lateral face (26) has a detachable part at its upper end formed by a flap 28 of generally triangular shape with the tip down. It should be noted that the pre-cut line in V 29 of said flyer cuts the upper edge 30, corresponding to the edge 7 d parallelepiped volume shown in FIG. 3, at a distance from the adjacent angles of the box, the width d flap 28 of the right of the edge 10 being substantially less than the width of the face 26. The upper flap 31 attached to the face 26 comprises a detachable part formed by a flap 32 of trapezoidal shape delimited by a pre-cut line 33 joining the line 29 on the edge 30 and extended by a cut 34 in shape d half moon. The two adjacent upper flaps, 35 and 36, attached to the two large lateral faces 24 and 25 respectively, are specially arranged on their edge opposite the flap 31.

The flap 35 has a detachable part 37 and a half-moon cutout 38, corresponding to the elements 32 and 3 of the flap 31, the two assemblies being superimposed on the closure. of the box and the flaps 32 and 37 forming the pendant of the flap 28 relative to the edge 10.

The flap 36 has a trapezoidal notch 39 whose opening is substantially less than the width of the flap 36 for purposes which will be explained with reference to FIG. 7.

Figures 5 to 8 illustrate the closing phases of the box after insertion of the flexible filled envelope 1 conforming to the interior volume of said box. The flattened corners (5) being folded outwards, the flap 36 is the first to be put in place, then, the corner 5 (FIG. 6) is folded over said flap 36. The notch 39 is dimensioned and arranged so that once the corner 5 folded against the flap 36, then the flap 31 folded against the corner, the latter is sandwiched and secures the inner envelope 1 of the outer cardboard envelope. Advantageously, the internal face of the flap 36 can be adhesive-bonded to secure the envelope 1 of the box.

The flap 35 is put in place (Figure 8) last, so that externally the box has a traditional parallelepiped shape with smooth faces and without extra thickness. Only the half-moon 38 appears on the top of the box, which allows the removal of the flaps 37, 32 and 28 (Figure 9) to access the spout. The removal of the flap 32 by means of the half-moon 34 causes, by continuing the movement, that of the adjacent flap 28.

We thus discover the upper half-part 6a of the cut in the plane of the flap 35 and the lower half-part 6b through the V-shaped notch 29 on the face 26. The next step is (FIG. 10). extraction of the spout by pulling on the corner 5, by pivoting around the line 7. Continuing the pivoting movement towards the outside, the cutout 6 is forced (FIG. 11) to bend while trying to pass through the 'indentation 29 whose width is deliberately less than that of the cutout 6 precisely to force the latter to conform to a chute as illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13.

The movement continues until the notches 11 and 13 appear at the bottom of the notch 29 (notches 13) and the horizontal upper edge 10, at least as far as the rest of the box and are blocked there on horseback under the effect of elastic withdrawal of the envelope 1 which is released and of the cutout 6 which arqueboute elastically against the surrounding cardboard. The pouring spout thus shaped is locked in position. Once the pouring spout has been deployed, the tip of the wedge 5 is removed by tearing (FIG. 11), although this removal can be carried out, preferably also because more easily, before the complete deployment of the spout, that is to say before the engagement of the lower part 6b of the cutout in the notch (29) formed in the face 26. For this purpose, a tear-off primer constituted by a notch

40 is formed on the free edge of the sealing strip 3, opposite the two notches 16 of the cutout. The tear is carried out by hand as illustrated in FIG. 11. The tear line is channeled by the notches 40, 16, then the edge of the cut delimited by the pre-cut line 15, up to the groove 8.

After removal of said tip from the flexible packaging 1, there remains (FIG. 12) an orifice delimited by line 15 of the cutout (6a).

The notch 9, formed in the part 20 of the cutout intended to be removed during the first use of the pouring spout, has the role of clearing the external tip of the corner 5 and of facilitating the triangular folding of the upper half-part

6a of the cutout during the establishment of the envelope 1 packed in its cardboard envelope.

The maximum opening (Figure 12) of the pouring spout is obtained by moving the sealing strip 3 away from the cutout (6a), the latter being well maintained in a convex shape and in place since it is locked by the notches 11, 13 and the elastic bending of said cut.

It should be noted that the product flowing through the pourer never comes into contact with any other material than that of the flexible envelope 1 which lines the internal facet of the cut up to the edge 15.

There, reclosing after use of the spout is even easier since it suffices (FIG. 13) to bring the end of the strip 3 closer to the cutout 6a, so as to close the outlet orifice. The elasticity of the curved cutout 6a tends to plate the wall portions opposite the casing 1 against each other, which provides a suitable sealing closure of the spout.

The packaging according to the invention can then be stored in this state (Figure 13) and be reused at any time. Just pull on the strip 3 to reopen the spout as shown in Figure 12.

The role of the grooves 7 and 8 is to allow appropriate placement of the pouring spout (during the insertion of the casing 1 into its box) and optimal shaping of the pouring spout during its deployment and locking. in place.

The design of the spout orifice, that is to say the determination of the shape and location of the pre-cut 15, is chosen according to the nature and the viscosity of the product which must contain the envelope 1, said cutout 15 being able to be, for example, along a V with curved branches or a half-moon. As illustrated at 15 'in FIG. 2, the V-shaped pre-cut can extend over the entire upper half of the cut 6, the point of the V coinciding with the intersection of the grooves 7 and 8, the angle formed by the V can be variable. This latter embodiment allows folding at 90 °, along the crease 7 and in the plane of the upper flaps (35, 36) of the box, parts of the cut 6 flanking the V-shaped pre-cut 15 '.

The establishment of the cutout 6 on the envelope 1 can be done during the formation, from a sheet of thermoplastic material, of a tubular sheath transversely sealed from place to place to form a string of sachets , in the well known manner, said sachets being filled simultaneously with their production. The blanks 6 are then deposited at the desired locations on the external face of the tubular sheath, at the filling station, using a conventional labeling machine. It should be noted that in the complex packaging according to the invention, the internal envelope 1 is easily separable from the external cardboard box, which allows the selective subsequent recovery of the two materials constituting the external envelope on the one hand and the inner envelope on the other hand. The envelope 1 can also be filled under vacuum or under nitrogen or other neutral gas.

Finally, the invention is obviously not limited to the embodiment shown and described above but on the contrary covers all the variants in particular as regards the shapes, dimensions and nature of the cut-out 6 attached, the locking means of the latter in the notch (29) formed in the wall of the external envelope during the deployment of the pouring spout through said notch, as well as the means of access to the pouring spout provided on the face and closing flaps of the outer envelope.

The invention obviously applies to square boxes, that is to say with side faces 24 to 27 of the same width.

It is also possible to provide the pouring spout no longer on one of the small side faces but on one of the large faces (24,25), which makes it possible to produce a wider spout. The internal envelope 1 is then placed in the external envelope with its upper seal 3 in the direction of large faces. The corner carrying the pouring spout and the homologous cutout of the cutout 6 of the embodiment shown, extends over the entire width of one of said large faces (24,25) and the homologous shutter of the shutter 28 has a width, is straight from the upper edge of said large face, substantially less than the width of the large face, similarly to said flap 28.

The other upper flaps are shaped so as to allow access to the spout under the same conditions as in the embodiment shown, the two small flaps being folded down before the two large ones. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the flexible envelope 1 has two opposite upper corners folded inwards. One can consider a different fold of the flexible envelope, without folding the upper coil 5 carrying the spout, in the case where the flexible envelope is not completely filled. Said corner 5 is simply slightly pressed towards the inside of the flexible envelope 1 while being pressed against the upper part of the small side 26.

Furthermore, the flexible envelope l may have at the ends transverse seals 3 no longer parallel but orthogonal, like a berlingot. This facilitates the positioning of the spout on the face of a large side (24,25) when the internal envelope 1 is threaded into the external envelope. Finally, according to another variant illustrated by FIG. 14, the detachable flap 32 ′ formed on the upper flap 31 extends beyond the small lateral face 26, the pre-cut lines 33 ′ and 29 ′, respectively of the flap 32 ′ and of the detachable flap 28 ′ from face 26, joining on a line 30 ′ parallel to edge 30 and located on face 26. In this embodiment, the cutout 6 will be positioned on the flexible envelope 1 so that the grooving 7 is located substantially at the level of said line 30 ′. This keeps a spout with sufficient opening in the case of a side face 26 of reduced width, the blocking of the spout on its sides (at the hatched areas 41 of Figure 14) is better.

Claims

1. Foldable box with internal flexible envelope with reclosable pouring spout, comprising an rigid or semi-rigid external envelope (24 to 25 31,35,36) comprising four faces each extended by two opposite closing tabs e an internal envelope (1) in the form of a tubular sheath transversely sealed (3) at its upper and lower ends, characterized in that:

- the pouring spout is formed in one of the two upper corners (5) of the tubular sheath (l) delimited at the ends of the transverse sealing (3), using a cutout (6) made of a semi-material rigid and disposed flush with said seal (3 and straddling the line (4) joining the opposite ends of the upper and lower seals, and - the upper closure tabs (31, 35, 36) of the outer casing are provided means (32,37 for access to said corner (5) provided with said cutout (6) while the side wall (26) of the box is provided, at the right of said cutout, with a detachable flight (28) forming notch (29) allowing passage and deployment of the spout.

2. Box according to claim 1, characterized in that the cutout (6) has a generally rectangular or square shape is provided with grooves (7,8) facilitating its shaping.

3. Box according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the cutout (6) is provided with pre-cutouts (16) serving as a guide for tearing the internal envelope (1) to the right of the corner tip (5) forming a beak pourer.

4. Box according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the cutout (6) is provided with peripheral notches (11,13) allowing a hooking of the piece on the edges of said notch (29) of passage deployment of the spout.

5. Box according to one of claims 1 to characterized in that the lateral face (26) of the external envelope facing the pouring spout is provided with a detachable flight (28) of generally triangular shape with the poin down and extending to the upper edge (10) the outer envelope, the width of said flap (28) in line with the edge (10) being substantially less than the width of said face (26).

6. Box according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the lateral face (26) of the outer casing opposite the pouring spout is provided with a detachable flap (28 ') of generally triangular shape with the tip down and of width substantially less than the width of said face (26), while the flap (31) attached to the latter and the longitudinal flap (35) closing the box lastly are provided with detachable flaps (32 ', 37) extended by cutouts (34,38) allowing the gripping of said flaps, the flap (32') of the flap (31) attached to said small face (26) being extended on the latter and joining the other flap ( 28 ') along a line (30') parallel to the upper edge (30) of the outer envelope.

7. Box according to one of claims 1 to 5, caracté¬ ized in that the cutout (6) has a width substantially equal to that of the small side faces (26,27) of the outer casing and, in the folded position of the box with its internal envelope (1) packed, is astride the upper edge of the box (10) delimited between a small lateral face (26) and the top face (35).

8. Box according to claim 7, characterized in that the flap (31) attached to said small face (26) and the longitudinal flap (35) closing the box last are provided with detachable flaps (32,37) forming the pendant said flap (28) relative to said edge (10), said flaps (32,37) being extended by cutouts (34,38) allowing the gripping of said flaps.

9. Box according to one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that the part (6a) of the cut-out capable of being folded parallel to the top face of the box is advantageously sandwiched between one (36 ) long lateral flaps, which is provided with a suitable cutout (39) allowing the deployment of the pouring spout, and the two other adjacent flaps (31, 35) of which said access means are constituted by detachable parts (32, 37) produced by pre-cutting.

10. Box according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said precuts used for guiding the tearing of the internal envelope (l) are constituted by a line (15) delimiting the discharge opening of the spout and shape appropriate to the nature and viscosity of the product contained in the internal envelope, arranged in the center and in the upper part of the cutout (6), the ends of which end in notches (16) situated opposite a similar notch (40) forming a tear-off primer, formed in the upper sealing strip (3) of the internal flexible envelope.

11. Box according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that one (36) of the upper closure flaps is secured by gluing of the flexible internal envelope (1).

12. Box according to one of claims 2 to 11, characterized in that said shaping grooves consist of two perpendicular central grooves (7,8).

13. Box according to one of claims 4 to 12, characterized in that said peripheral notches consist of two notches (11) formed on the lateral edges (12) of the cutout (6), at the ends of one of said grooves (7) and two twin notches (13) formed on the lower edge (14) of the cutout (6), at the end of the other of said grooves (8), so as to constitute a point (19) hanging.