Five-sided cigarette carton packaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10023339-B2
Application number	US-201314032538-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2013
Priority date	Feb 3, 2010
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

Methods and machines are provided for forming a five-sided carton of packages of smoking articles. A piece of film material is applied to a plurality of packages of smoking articles such that five sides of the plurality of packages are at least partially covered by the film material, but the sixth side remains uncovered. The film material is applied such that the group of packages is sufficiently tightly bound so that none of the packages may slip free from the carton. The sixth side of the plurality of packages in the carton remains exposed so that tax stamps may be easily applied. The film of material may be applied so that a gap is formed relative to the sixth side.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of forming a carton assembly for a group of packages of smoking articles with a packaging machine comprising:
assembling a plurality of packages of smoking articles into a desired configuration to form a group of packages, the desired configuration being substantially box-shaped having six sides;
supplying a piece of film material of a predetermined size, the film material being heat shrinkable;
folding the film material over the group of packages such that film material covers substantial portions of five sides of the six sides of the group of packages and does not cover one side of the six sides, the uncovered one side exposing a bottom surface of each package of the plurality of the packages of smoking articles, and such that the folded film material on two opposing sides of the group of packages forms an overlapping portion of film material;
heating the overlapping portion of film material for a first period of time to seal together the film material forming the overlapping portion; and
heating at least a portion of the film material surrounding the group of packages for a second period of time to heat shrink the film material to a confining fit about the group of packages, whereby the uncovered one side of the six sides is the bottom surface of each package of the plurality of the packages that remains uncovered by the film material.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein subsequent to the folding the film material at least one edge of the film material disposed on one side of the five sides is spaced apart from the uncovered bottom surface to form a gap there along.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein subsequent to the folding the film material, an edge of the film material disposed on four sides of the five sides is spaced apart from the uncovered bottom surface to form a gap there along.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein in the supplying step the film material comprises biaxially oriented polypropylene.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein in the supplying step the film material is transparent.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein in the supplying step the film material includes an outer sealable layer and an inner sealable layer.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein in the heating step to make a confining fit, the portion of the film material that is heated is shrunk by an amount of between 1 and 5 percent in at least one direction.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein in the heating steps the first period of time is less than the second period of time.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising cooling the overlapping portion after heating the overlapping portion step and prior to heating the film to form a confining fit.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the film material extends over at least a majority of a portion and less than all of a front side and a back side of the group of packages such that a portion of the front side and the back side of the group of packages are exposed in an area adjacent to the bottom side of the group of packages of smoking articles, said portion of exposed sides being between about 1 and about 20% of an area of the sides.

Assignees

• Pipes Jerry Wayne
• Hatcher Mark Shane
• Jones Wesley Steven
• Reynolds Tobacco Co R

Inventors

• Pipes Jerry Wayne
• Hatcher Mark Shane
• Jones Wesley Steven

Classifications

• B31B50/26

  Folding sheets, blanks or webs · CPC title

• B65B19/02

  Packaging cigarettes · CPC title

• B65B53/02

  by heat · CPC title

• B65B19/025

  in webs of flexible sheet material · CPC title

• B65B2220/16

  Packaging contents into primary and secondary packaging · CPC title