United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 6,164,444 Bray Et Al
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USOO6164444A United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 6,164,444 Bray et al. (45) Date of Patent: Dec. 26, 2000 54) PACKAGING FOR SMOKING ARTICLES 3.999,655 12/1976 Molins et al.. WITH SEALED ENCLOSURE (List continued on next page.) 75 Inventors: Andrew Jonathan Bray, Milton FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Keynes; Michael Patrick Parker, Leighton Buzzard; John Roger O119314A2 9/1984 European Pat. Off.. Sampson, Welwyn Garden; Adrian 378586 B1 7/1989 European Pat. Off.. Roy Stewart-Cox, Buckingham, all of O447636B1 12/1990 European Pat. Off.. O546369A1 11/1992 European Pat. Off.. United Kingdom 633202 A2 1/1995 European Pat. Off.. 789627 1/1958 United Kingdom. 73 Assignee: British American Tobacco 918388 8/1959 United Kingdom. Investments Ltd., London, United 1514174 6/1978 United Kingdom. Kingdom 2140774 8/1983 United Kingdom. 2264483 9/1993 United Kingdom. 21 Appl. No.: 09/284,987 WO 87/O2645 5/1987 WIPO. 22 PCT Filed: Nov. 19, 1997 Primary Examiner Bryon P. Gehman 86 PCT No.: PCT/GB97/03183 Attorney, Agent, or Firm Jones, Tullar & Cooper, PC S371 Date: May 12, 1999 57 ABSTRACT S 102(e) Date: May 12, 1999 A pack (1) for Smoking articles Such as cigarettes has a Sealed enclosure of barrier material, with a resealable acceSS 87 PCT Pub. No.: WO98/22367 aperture to the enclosure. A cover (7) over that aperture has PCT Pub. Date: May 28, 1998 on all its openable edges a permanently tacky Surface overlapping over the barrier material there. The cover has a 30 Foreign Application Priority Data non-adhesive tab (10) to assist opening. An inner frame Nov. 21, 1996 GB United Kingdom ................... 96.24275 provides Support to the barrier material adjacent to the Aug. 6, 1997 GB United Kingdom ..... ... 9716699 aperture, allowing the adhesive cover to be pressed firmly Oct. 3, 1997 GB United Kingdom ................... 972.108O against the barrier layer to aid resealing. The pack may be provided with or without an outer carton. If an outer carton 51 Int. Cl." ........................... B65D 85/10; B65D 85/12; is included, the carton may be of a generally rigid card B65D 43/16 material, and may have a flip-top configuration, may be a 52 U.S. Cl. .......................... 206/268; 206/264; 206/273; Laubé box, or may have a shell-and-slide configuration. 229/160.1 58 Field of Search ..................................... 206/242, 264, An inner frame provides Support to the barrier material 206/268, 269,271, 273, 274, 275; 229/160.1 adjacent to the aperture, allowing the adhesive cover to be pressed firmly against the barrier layer to aid resealing. The 56) References Cited pack may be provided with or without an outer carton. If an outer carton is included, the carton may be of a generally U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS rigid card material, and may have a flip-top configuration, 1,755,579 4/1930 Grupe. may be a Laubé box, or may have a shell-and-slide con 1,877,955 9/1932 Ottinger .............................. 206/268 X figuration. 2,719,663 10/1955 Meyer-Jagenberg. 2,896,839 7/1959 Barnes et al.. 3,027,998 4/1962 Ridgeway. 17 Claims, 16 Drawing Sheets 6,164,444 Page 2 U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,784,261 11/1988 Kutchin. 4,119,196 10/1978 Flahert 4,850,482 7/1989 Campbell ................................ 206/273 2 2 anerty . 2 : 4,300,676 11/1981 Focke et al. ............................ 206/264 E. 3.O ten et al. 4,420,080 12/1983 Nakamura. 2 - - - 2 f ocke 4,606.956 8/1986 Charbonneau et al.. 5,125,211 6/1992 O'Brien et al.. 4,632.299 12/1986 Holmberg 5,158,664 10/1992 Colgan et al. .......................... 206/242 4,679,.693 7/1987 Forman. 5.249,676. 10/1993 Ashcraft et al.. 4,720,423 1/1988 Fraser. 5,333,729 8/1994 Wolfe. 4,763,779 8/1988 Focke et al.. 5,333,735 8/1994 Focke et al.. 4,771,882 9/1988 Lowe et al. ............................. 206/268 5,511,658 4/1996 Focke et al.. 4,771,891 9/1988 Sorenson et al.. 5,556,026 9/1996 Blankitny . U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 1 of 16 6,164,444 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 2 of 16 6,164,444 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 3 of 16 6,164,444 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 4 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.7. 16 19 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet S of 16 6,164,444 43 ----|-- U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 6 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.10. 56 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 7 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.11. U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 8 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.13. U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 9 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.14. Fig.16. 56 55 74 70 57 71 61 72 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 10 of 16 6,164,444 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 11 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.20. U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 12 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.21. U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 13 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.25. 244 238 233 240 237 234 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 14 of 16 6,164,444 Fig.26. 248 Fig.29. U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 15 of 16 6,164,444 268 268 265 26 267 266 U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 2000 Sheet 16 of 16 6,164,444 271 266 264 271 6,164,444 1 2 PACKAGING FOR SMOKING ARTICLES The barrier layer be continuous over one minor end of the WITH SEALED ENCLOSURE pack or charge, and have Side Seams along both minor Sides of the pack and an envelope or Similar fold over the opposite BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION minor end. The barrier layer need not be applied in that This invention relates to packaging for Smoking articles manner-it can equally well be applied So as to be continu Such as cigarettes, cigars and cigarilloS. For convenience and ouS Over one minor Side and Sealed over both minor ends and brevity these will be referred to herein as cigarettes. one minor Side. The object of the present invention is to provide packag Various patterns of heat Sealable portions of barrier layer, ing for cigarettes which acts as an effective barrier against achieved by the application of glue, lacquer or the like to the ingreSS and egreSS of humidity or ingreSS of contaminants barrier material, can when heat-Sealed with each other or during transport and Storage of the packaged cigarettes, but with the barrier material form an enclosure which is as near which also allows maintenance of that effective barrier as possible hermetic. property even after the package has been first opened by the It is desirable that a non-adhesive tab is present at one user. In other words, we are providing a resealable barrier edge of the cover layer, to aid opening and reopening of the layer in cigarette packaging. 15 pack. The provision of barrier layers either as an inner wrap of It is preferable that the tab does not lie flush with the a cigarette carton or an outer wrap or both is commonplace. barrier layer, So that it may be more easily gripped when Provision is more or leSS eSSential if cigarettes are to have opening/reopening the pack. This may be achieved by any Sort of commercial shelf life in Zones having hostile various means, for example by folding in the region where climatic conditions, especially in high temperature, high the tab joins the adhesive portion of the cover, by applying humidity Zones. inkS or other media which upon drying distort the material But as far as we are aware all Such barrier layerS So far of the cover, or by distorting the cover by embossing. More provided, whether internal or external, have been destroyed preferably, the tab is folded back to lie against (the non in their barrier function when the user first opens the adhesive surface of) the cover and then releasably held in package. Typically, an outer barrier layer has a tearStrip 25 place by minor amounts of an adhesive. which the user operates to Separate halves of the outer wrap A resealable pack may be included in a Laube, or flat, box. which is then discarded, or a barrier layer within a cigarette Such boxes are well know in the art and are generally rigid, carton (or Surrounding a Soft wrap package) although not being made of thick card or similar material, and hinged usually discarded once the package is opened has a perma along a minor edge of a major face, or along a major midline nent opening formed in it by the user when he first gains of a minor face. In Such embodiments, the aperture in the CCCSS. barrier layer is preferably located on the front surface of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,779 shows a tin-foil inner wrapping pack (that is, the major Surface that is revealed when the for a Laubé-type box where a flap of that wrapping may be Laubé box is opened) and the top Surface (that is, the Surface brought down over an access aperture, and overlap the edges 35 which is furthest from the hinge of the Laubé box). It may of the aperture.