HK1166481A - Pack for tobacco industry products - Google Patents

Description

Package for tobacco industry products

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a pack for tobacco industry products and adapted to release a substance, which may be used, for example, to freshen or upgrade the product.

Background

The invention is described herein with reference to "tobacco industry products". Reference herein to tobacco industry products is to any article made or sold by the tobacco industry, typically comprising a) a cigarette, cigarillo, cigar, tobacco for a pipe or self-rolling cigarette, (whether based on tobacco, tobacco derivatives, tobacco in general, reconstituted tobacco or tobacco substitutes); b) non-smoking articles comprising tobacco, tobacco derivatives, tobacco in the broadest sense, reconstituted tobacco or tobacco substitutes, such as snuff, snus (snus), hard tobacco (hard tobaco) and heated but non-combustible products; and c) non-tobacco products-such as aerosol delivery devices, inhalers, gummies and chewing gums. This list is not exclusive and only shows a range of products made and sold in the tobacco industry.

Menthol flavoured cigarettes are well known in the art and comprise tobacco based cigarettes to which menthol flavourings have been added. When smoking, the user experiences a taste of menthol.

Cigarettes are packaged in cigarette packs and then sold to consumers, which are typically sealed during manufacture to maintain the freshness of the product packaged therein. However, once the packing box is opened, the freshness of the product deteriorates with the passage of time. Once the pack is opened, the tobacco of the cigarette undesirably dries. Also, cigarettes may be provided with flavourants during manufacture-for example menthol-and over time menthol flavourants may escape from the product, resulting in the consumer experiencing menthol levels in the product below that specified by the manufacturer. Eventually, the menthol flavor of the product packaged in the opened package may be consumed to a range where the article becomes disliked by consumers.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a pack for tobacco industry products, the pack comprising a housing defining an enclosure in which a plurality of tobacco industry products can be accommodated, and a carrier provided in or on the pack, the carrier being arranged to contain a substance for altering a characteristic of a tobacco industry product when the tobacco industry product is in the pack, wherein the carrier comprises a pad impregnated with the substance and a removable strip attached to the carrier so as to release the substance from the carrier into the pack for absorption by the tobacco industry product when removed.

Thus, substances such as flavouring substances may be introduced into the pack for absorption by tobacco industry products disposed therein-for example for supplementing or improving the flavour of the articles as they are consumed.

The package may comprise an outer shell, an inner frame and a lid, a pad disposed between the outer shell and the inner frame, and a strip having a portion extending into the lid such that when the lid is opened, the strip may be manually grasped and removed from engagement with the pad to release the substance from the pad.

The gasket may be attached to the housing, and a membrane may be disposed between the housing and the gasket to prevent substances in the gasket from entering the housing.

An aperture formation may be provided in the housing and overlying the strap to provide a visual signal of whether the strap has been removed from the pack. The internal frame may have a different appearance from the strap in the area below the aperture formation in the housing.

The wick may be arranged to transfer a substance from the pad within the enclosure and may comprise a portion of the housing. The wick may be arranged to direct the substance released from the carrier to a predetermined portion of the enclosure. The inner frame may be permeable to the substance contained in the carrier and act as a wick.

The substance contained in the carrier may comprise a flavouring substance-for example menthol, or a substance that freshens a dry and stale product without additional flavouring-for example water.

The invention also includes an assembly and a method for manufacturing the package.

Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

figure 1 is a schematic view of a package for tobacco industry products including cigarettes;

FIG. 2 shows the package of FIG. 1 with the lid open to expose the draw tape;

FIG. 3A is a front view of the package shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3B is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the package shown in FIG. 3A taken along line B-B;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the package of FIG. 1 with the lid open and the draw tape in the process of being removed;

FIG. 5 shows the package of FIG. 4 with the draw tape removed and the lid opened; and

figure 6 shows the package of figure 5 with the draw tape removed and the lid closed.

Detailed Description

With reference to figures 1, 2 and 3, a substantially rectangular packet 1 comprises a body 2, said body 2 having a hinged lid 3 and containing two rows of filter-tipped cigarettes 4, each filter-tipped cigarette 4 having a tobacco rod 4A and a filter 4B. The cigarettes 4 may be filled with flavourants, such as menthol, during manufacture and contained in a wrapper 5, such as a metal foil, to keep them fresh. The cigarettes in the wrapper 5 are contained within an internal frame 30, which internal frame 30 is mounted within the housing 25 of the body 2. The inner frame 30 may be made of substantially porous cardboard, while the outer shell 25 may be heavily printed and embossed such that it is substantially impermeable, which helps to retain the flavourant in the tobacco of the cigarette. The package 1 may also be wrapped in transparent wrapping paper (not shown) to seal the package.

Between the inner frame 30 and the outer shell 25, an elongated (generally rectangular) flexible draw tape 32 made of cardboard or plastic material is provided on a front face 33 of the packet 1. The draw tape 32 has a manually graspable end portion 32A which is exposed when the lid 3 is opened so as to project above an upper edge 33A of the front face 33 of the main body 2.

The draw tape 32 extends toward the bottom edge 33B of the front face of the main body 2. The lowermost region 32B of the pull strap 32 covers the carrier in the form of a pad 34 filled with liquid, which may contain a fragrance material or a flavourant, which is attached to the inside of the front face 33 of the main body. The pad 34 may be made of absorbent paper, cardboard or similar material. The pad 34 may be affixed to the inside of the front face 33 and may include a non-porous membrane to prevent the flavorant from being adsorbed into the front face 33.

The non-adhered surface 35 of the pad 34 is covered by the draw tape 32 in the area 32B, which area 32B and pad 34 may be lightly adhered or otherwise releasably attached to one another. When the draw tape 32 is configured in the pattern shown in fig. 2 and 3, the area 32B of the draw tape acts as a barrier to prevent liquid from the gasket 34 from entering the inner frame 30.

The outer face 33 of the pack 1 comprises a hole formation 35, which hole formation 35 may be in the form of a visible marking that exposes a portion of the draw tape 32 so that a portion of the tape is visible from the outside of the pack 1. The portion of the inner frame 30 underlying the aperture formation 35 is a different visual appearance than the portion of the draw tape visible through the aperture formation 35 and is a different color than the draw tape.

The use of the draw tape is shown in figures 4, 5 and 6. When the pad 34 is filled with flavourant, removal of the draw tape may be used to replenish or introduce flavourant from the pad 34 into the cigarettes 4 within the pack 1. For this purpose, the user opens the lid 3 and manually removes the pull strip 32, as shown in fig. 4. The draw tape 32 is thus removed from attachment to the flavourant-impregnated pad 34, with the result that the flavourant may be drawn into the inner frame 30, which inner frame 30 may act as a wick to deliver the flavourant to the tobacco rod 4B and then have the flavourant adsorbed therein. Thus, if the pack contains a menthol cigarette, the pad 34 may be filled with a liquid containing menthol for replenishing the menthol flavourant in the cigarette-for example when the pack 1 has been previously opened and some of the menthol flavourant provided during cigarette manufacture has dissipated from the cigarette. Alternatively, the pad may be used to introduce different flavorants or liquids into the cigarettes, so that these cigarettes do not have to be flavored during manufacture.

The flavourant may be delivered through the inner frame 30, which acts as a wick, preferentially to different parts of the cigarette-for example, the flavourant is delivered preferentially to the tobacco rod 4B rather than the filter 4A, as the filter 4A disposed at the top of the pack is further from the pad 34 than the tobacco rod 4B. In addition, the inner frame 30 may be configured to provide independent wicking pathways (not shown) to preferentially transport liquid from the pad 34 to different regions of the cigarette tobacco rod. Further, in one variation, a wick (not shown) may be provided separately from the inner frame 30.

Alternatively, the gasket 30 may have direct access to the interior of the pack 1 and thus to the tobacco industry products rather than using the inner frame 30 as a wick. For this purpose, the inner frame 30 may be configured to provide a direct access passage of the spacer 30 to the cigarettes 4 by suitably shaping around the spacer 30 or providing holes in the region of the spacer.

Figure 5 shows the packet 1 with the strip 32 removed. The region 30A of the inner frame 30 behind the aperture 35 is a different color than the draw tape 32. For example, when a menthol flavorant is provided in pad 34, region 30A may be green so that when exposed after removal of the draw tape, the color provides a visual signal that additional menthol has been introduced into the cigarettes within pack 1. Fig. 6 shows the package 1 when the lid 3 is closed after the pull strip 32 has been removed, wherein the exposed area 30A is shown.

The packet may be made by folding and gluing a first blank to form the outer shell 25 comprising the body 2 and the lid 3, and the pad 34 is pre-filled with liquid flavourant and glued to the inside of the panels of the blank forming the front 33 of the packet 1. The modified coupon/insert feeder may be used to apply the shim 34 to the inner frame in other conventional hinge-lid cigarette packaging machines. The pull strap 32 is releasably attached to the pad 34. These components may be attached with hot melt adhesive. The cigarettes 4 are wrapped in a foil 5 and placed in an inner frame 30, which inner frame 30 is itself formed by folding from a second blank of porous cardboard, and the resulting assembly of cigarettes and inner frame is inserted into the outer shell so that a draw tape 32 is interposed between the inner frame 30 and the outer shell 25. A positioning device may be employed to ensure that the spacer 34 and draw tape 32 are accurately placed prior to forming the shell.

Alternatively, the spacer 34 may be preassembled and affixed to the blank of the inner frame before it reaches the packaging machine.

The invention has been described above with reference to improvements in flavour materials in tobacco industry products, for example menthol or other flavoured products. However, the invention may also be used for the dispensing of other aromatic products, water or humectants which may be used to freshen dry and stale products without the need for additional fragrance products. Thus, the pad 34 may be filled with such other aromatic products other than menthol as described above, such as spearmint or peppermint, or water or humectants. Thus, the spacer may be used to contain any suitable substance for altering the properties of the tobacco industry products as they are in the pack.

Further, the tape 32 including the draw tape may be configured in different ways. For example, the strap may cover only the pad 34 and have a length of cord attached thereto that may extend to the cover to allow removal of the strap by pulling on the cord.

Other embodiments of the invention will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (22)

1. A package for tobacco industry products, the package comprising:

a housing defining an enclosure in which a plurality of tobacco industry products may be housed, an

A carrier disposed in or on the pack, the carrier being arranged to contain a substance which alters a characteristic of a tobacco industry product when the tobacco industry product is in the pack;

wherein the carrier comprises a pad filled with the substance and a removable strip attached to the carrier to release the substance from the carrier into the package when the strip is removed.

2. A pack according to claim 1 including an outer shell, an inner frame and a lid, the pad and the band being disposed between the outer shell and the inner frame, and the band having a portion extending into the lid such that when the lid is opened the band can be manually grasped and removed from engagement with the pad to release the substance from the pad.

3. The package of claim 2, wherein the gasket is attached to the outer shell and a membrane is disposed between the outer shell and the gasket to prevent the substance in the gasket from entering the outer shell.

4. A pack according to claim 2 or 3 including an aperture formation in the outer shell which overlies the strap to provide a visual signal of whether the pull strap has been removed from the pack.

5. A pack according to claim 4 wherein the inner frame has a different appearance to the band in the region beneath the aperture formation in the outer shell.

6. A pack according to any preceding claim including a wick for transferring the substance from the pad into the enclosure.

7. A pack according to claim 6 wherein the cartridge comprises a portion of the shell.

8. A pack according to claim 6 or 7 wherein the cartridges are arranged to direct the substance released from the carrier to a predetermined portion of the enclosure.

9. A pack according to claim 8 wherein the tobacco industry products are contained in the pack, the pack containing filter-tipped smoking articles, and the predetermined portion of the enclosure is disposed distally of the filter end.

10. The package of claim 2, wherein the inner frame is permeable to a substance contained in the carrier.

11. A package according to any preceding claim, wherein the substance contained in the carrier comprises a flavouring substance or a substance to freshen a dry and stale product without the need for additional flavouring.

12. A pack according to any preceding claim wherein the substance contained in the carrier is menthol.

13. A pack according to any preceding claim wherein the substance contained in the carrier is water.

14. A pack according to any preceding claim and containing smoking articles.

15. A pack according to any preceding claim containing menthol flavoured cigarettes.

16. An assembly for forming a package for tobacco industry products, the assembly comprising:

at least one blank foldable to form a housing defining an enclosure in which a plurality of tobacco industry products can be housed; and

a carrier disposed in or on the pack, the carrier being arranged to contain a substance for altering a characteristic of a tobacco industry product when the tobacco industry product is in the pack, the carrier comprising a pad to be impregnated with the substance and a removable strip attached to the carrier so as to release the substance from the carrier into the pack when the strip is removed.

17. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the at least one blank comprises a first blank foldable to form an outer shell for the pack to receive a gasket attached thereto, and a second blank foldable to form an inner frame for containing tobacco industry products to be received within the outer shell.

18. A method of manufacturing a pack for tobacco industry products, the method comprising:

forming a housing defining an enclosure in which a plurality of tobacco industry products can be housed; and

providing a carrier disposed in or on the pack, the carrier for a substance for altering a characteristic of a tobacco industry product while the tobacco industry product is in the pack, the carrier comprising a pad impregnated with the substance and a removable strip attached to the carrier for releasing the substance from the carrier into the pack when the strip is removed.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the housing comprises an internal frame and an outer shell, and the method comprises attaching the carrier to the internal frame and placing the internal frame in the outer shell.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising attaching the carrier to a blank and folding the blank to form the internal frame.

21. A method as claimed in claim 19 or 20, comprising adhering the carrier to the inner frame.

22. A packaging machine configured to form packs of tobacco industry products according to the method of any one of claims 18 to 21.