EP0260345B1 - Packaging unit with several cardboard boxes - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a packaging unit made of folding boxes, which are intended to hold packaging items, in particular electrotechnical devices, wherein a plurality of folding boxes are arranged in close proximity to one another, each folding box comprising a blank with four wall parts, with an open and a closed end face is folded, with the open end faces and the two adjacent outer side wall parts of the folding boxes being surrounded by a common glued-on cover and the cover being provided with perforations on the one hand, so that the folding boxes can be broken off individually or in groups in the closed state, and on the other hand has a longitudinal perforation strip in the area of a row of side walls.

In the electrical engineering industry, the manufactured devices are always packed in a single box. The boxes loaded in this way are then generally combined in a more or less large carton row by row and one above the other to form a larger packaging unit in order to facilitate storage and transport or shipping. The manufacturing, filling and closing of the individual boxes is associated with considerable effort and time. In addition, the individual boxes have to be sorted or grouped and counted when they have to be prepared for dispatch based on an order. With the large number of different types of electrotechnical devices that occur in practice, there are also considerable difficulties in warehousing when the individual boxes have to be counted in order to determine the stock. Also for control purposes, e.g. B. in the intermediate trade, the individual boxes must be opened by hand and be closed again. After all, it is also cumbersome for the end user to open the individual boxes by hand in order to be able to remove the devices contained therein and process them further. This cumbersome and time-consuming method of production and treatment due to the individual packaging of any packaging items is not only given in the field of electrotechnical devices, but also in many other technical fields or in the packaging of everyday consumer goods.

A packaging unit explained at the beginning with the features specified there is known from document DE-A-3 340 918. With the folding boxes of this packaging unit, the cut is made so that the bottom of each folding box is made in one piece with the four side walls. After the four side walls have been folded up, several folding boxes can be arranged in close proximity to one another and then filled with the packaging items. To close the upper end faces of the folding boxes, a common cover with a U-shaped cross section is provided, which extends over the outer side walls of the folding boxes and is glued there. One leg of the U-shaped covering has a longitudinal strip formed by perforations or a longitudinal perforation strip. The individual folding boxes can optionally be broken off by the packaging unit. This is achieved by transverse perforations in the overlap in the plane between the individual folding boxes. In order to open the folding boxes, the longitudinal perforation must be broken open so that the upper part of the cover can then be opened. Apart from the fact that practically the longitudinal perforation can only be loosened starting from the respective ends of the packaging unit and that it is difficult to open only a middle folding box, there is the disadvantage that in any case the bandage of the packaging unit is solved. This results in difficulties in subsequent storage, e.g. B. when stacking numerous packaging units and subsequent transport.

In contrast, the invention is based on the object of creating a packaging unit in which, while maintaining the advantages of simple storage and safe transport, the individual folding boxes of the packaging unit can be opened and closed again as desired without undoing the association of the packaging unit.

The object is achieved according to the invention in that the open end faces form the bottoms of the folding boxes by means of the overlap, and in that the closed end faces consist of lids with molded insert flaps which can be opened and closed individually.

In this way, the main advantage is that each and every folding box of the packaging unit z. B. can be opened for control purposes. You can then remove the relevant packaging item and, if necessary, reinsert it into the folding box and close it again. Such checks are often required, both in the manufacturing plant, as well as at the middleman and at the end user. For this reason, it is important that the packaging unit as such remains stable and undamaged.

Advantageous configurations of the packaging unit result from the subclaims.

• Figur 1 eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Zuschnitts für eine Faltschachtel,
• Figur 2 eine perspektivische Ansicht einer Faltschachtel in einer Zwischenstellung des Faltvorganges,
• Figur 3 eine perspektivische Ansicht einer Faltschachtel mit etwas geöffnetem Deckel und oben befindlichem offenem Boden,
• Figur 4 eine perspektivische Ansicht einer Reihe Faltschachteln mit Darstellung einer Überdeckung vor deren Aufbringen auf die Faltschachteln,
• Figur 5 eine Stirnansicht auf eine Faltschachtelreihe und eine Überdeckung in einer Zwischenstellung vor dem Zusammenfügen,
• Figur 6 eine Stirnansicht entsprechend Figur 5, jedoch nach dem Zusammenfügen der Faltschachteln und der Abdeckung,
• Figur 7 eine perspektivische Ansicht einer Verpakkungseinheit, bei welcher der Längsstreifen zum Teil abgerissen und ein Teil der Faltschachteln geöffnet dargestellt ist und
• Figur 8 eine perspektivische Darstellung zur Veranschaulichung des Abbrechvorgangs einzelner Faltschachteln von der Verpackungseinheit.

In the drawing, an embodiment of a packaging unit according to the invention is shown in the diagram, namely show

• FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a blank for a folding box,
• FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a folding box in an intermediate position of the folding process,
• Figure 3 is a perspective view of a folding box with the lid slightly open and the open bottom at the top,
• FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a row of folding boxes, showing an overlap before it is applied to the folding boxes,
• FIG. 5 shows an end view of a row of folding boxes and an overlap in an intermediate position before assembly,
• 6 shows an end view corresponding to FIG. 5, but after the folding boxes and the cover have been joined,
• FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of a packaging unit, in which the longitudinal strip is partially torn off and part of the folding boxes is shown open, and
• Figure 8 is a perspective view to illustrate the breaking process of individual folding boxes from the packaging unit.

1 shows in perspective a blank 1 for a folding box, which is advantageously punched out of cardboard or, in the case of larger dimensions, of cardboard or, if appropriate, also of a plastic sheet or another suitable sheet material. The choice of material also applies to the cutting of the covering 22 explained below. The cutting 1 has four wall parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 and a cover 9. On the lid 9 is one Insert tab 10 molded in one piece. Small notches 19, 20 are provided at the ends of the folding line 18 between the cover 9 and the insertion tab 10. Furthermore, cover flaps 7 and 8 are formed on the two wall parts 3 and 5, which are adjacent to the wall part 2 of the cover 9. Finally, an edge flap 6 is formed on the wall part 2, so that the edges of the blank 1 which are adjacent after the folding box 21 (FIG. 3) has been folded can be connected to one another by means of this edge flap 6 by gluing, as is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 . This blank 1 with the previously explained parts can be produced in a single punching process. Dotted fold lines 11 to 18 are provided between the individual parts, which are expediently formed at the same time as the punching process, but possibly also in a subsequent separate working process by slightly pressing in the edges of a pressing tool or by means of grooves in order to achieve an exact folding of the folding box . Folding can be done fully automatically. The same also applies to the application of an adhesive for gluing the edge flap 6.

It is essential for the folding box produced within the scope of the invention that the folding box as such has no bottom, i.e. that the floor remains open at first.

FIG. 3 shows a folding box in perspective, the lid 9 located below with the lid flap 10 being drawn in a somewhat open position. Before further processing, the cover with the Insert tab but closed. The folding boxes 21 prepared in this way are then expediently arranged loosely next to one another with the bottom open, which can also be done fully automatically. It has been found to be particularly advantageous to combine ten folding boxes 21 into one packaging unit.

As FIGS. 4 to 6 illustrate, the open bottoms and the two adjacent outer side walls 3, 5 of the folding boxes 21 are surrounded by a common cover 22. This cover 22 consists of a rectangular blank, which is provided at the edges in FIG. 4 with folding lines corresponding to FIG. 1, so that the blank can be folded into a profile with a U-shaped cross section, as shown in FIG. The U-shaped profile has a bottom part 23, which corresponds to the total area of the open bottoms of the folding boxes 21 arranged next to one another. On the two longitudinal edges (fold lines) of the base part 23 there are side parts 24, 25 which advantageously cover the entire side of the outer side walls 3 and 5 of the folding boxes 21. The cover is provided with perforations 26, 27 and 28, which can be introduced simultaneously during the punching process. These perforations 26, 27 and 28 lie in levels which correspond to the intermediate levels between two adjacent folding boxes, in such a way that the folding boxes 21, as will be explained in more detail below, can be broken off individually or in groups from the packaging unit in the closed state .

A particularly advantageous embodiment of the packaging unit according to the invention consists in that a longitudinal strip 29 is provided on a side part 24 of the cover 22 and extends over all the folding boxes 21 of the packaging unit. The longitudinal strip 29 is formed by perforations 30 and 31 on both sides, which are advantageously designed as tooth perforations, as clearly illustrated in FIGS. 4, 7 and 8. These perforations 30 and 31, like the perforations 26 to 28, can be produced simultaneously with the punching process of the blank for the cover.

In order to create a packaging unit from the loose adjacent folding boxes according to FIG. 4, the common cover 22 must be connected to all folding boxes of the packaging unit. This is expediently done by adhesive layers 32 and 33 which, according to FIGS. 5 and 6, are provided between the side parts 24 and 25 of the cover 22 on the one hand and the outer side walls 3, 5 of the folding boxes 21 on the other hand. The adhesive layer 32 is applied over the entire area between the one side part 25 of the cover 22 and the adjacent side walls 5 of the folding boxes 21, while an adhesive layer 33 is only between the other side part 24 and the side walls 3 in the area between the longitudinal strip 29 and the outer edge of this side part 24 is applied so that the side part strip 34 (FIG. 5) of the side part 24 remains without an adhesive layer, so that, above all the illustrated longitudinal strip 29 with the tooth perforations 30 and 31 is also not glued on. Advantageously, the longitudinal strip 29 is provided in the side part 24 of the cover 22 so as to be offset off-center upwards in accordance with FIG. 7 that a narrow edge part 35 remains between the longitudinal strip 29 and the bottom part 23.

The perforations 26 to 28 and 30, 31 explained above can be designed as rows of holes. Advantageously, however, these perforations are carved or slotted, in such a way that the packaging unit 36 does not break during normal handling despite the packaging objects contained in the folding boxes or does not open in places in an undesired manner.

As the above description has already made it understandable, the production of a packaging unit takes place essentially in such a way that firstly blanks for the folding boxes and blanks for covering with the folding lines and with the perforations are produced. The folding boxes are then folded and the loose boxes are arranged in a row next to one another. The cover is then also folded and, advantageously provided with the adhesive layers described, applied to the folding boxes and finally connected to them to form a packaging unit. Before the cover is attached, it is advantageous to fill the individual folding boxes with the packaging items, in such a way that the folding boxes with the lid down and with the open floor must be set up. The packaging items can then expediently be introduced fully automatically through the open bottom of the folding boxes. As soon as the covering is applied, all folding boxes are completely closed.

The packaging unit described offers a number of advantages. First of all, compared to individual folding boxes, it is much easier to handle. This was already explained at the beginning. One can now optionally break off a single folding box from the packaging unit 36 by breaking open the transverse perforations 26 to 28 of the cover. In this state, the folding box is still closed on all sides, but can then be opened by opening the lid 9 and the lid flaps 7, 8 in order to remove the packaging item. Instead, a still connected group of folding boxes can be broken off from the packaging unit. There is also the possibility, in particular for control purposes, but also whenever it is important to open the entire packaging unit quickly, for example at the end user who processes the packaging objects, for example electrical engineering devices, partially or entirely with the help of the perforations 30, 31 to separate, as shown in Figure 7. In this case, the bottom parts 23 with the edge parts 35 are free and can be opened upwards, together if the perforations 27 are not torn open or individually if the bottom parts 23 are opened by opening the perforations 27 separates from each other (Figure 7). If the longitudinal strip is completely pulled off, the packaging unit is still preserved as such because the remaining side parts 24 and 25 still hold the folding boxes together. By simply turning the packaging unit around, the base parts 23 can be opened individually or in connection, so that the packaging objects can fall out. If, by tearing off the longitudinal strip 29, only the entire packaging unit is to be checked, the edge parts 35 of the base parts 23 can be closed again with the insertion flap 10, similarly to the cover 9.

Claims (8)

1. Packaging unit consisting of folding boxes (21) which are intended to accomodate objects to be packaged, especially electrical devices, whereby a plurality of folding boxes (21) are arranged compactly beside one another in a row, and whereby each folding box (21) is folded from a blank (1) with four wall sections (2,3,4,5) with an open and a closed end section, and whereby the open end sides and the two adjacent outer side wall sections (3,5) of the folded boxes (21) are encompassed by a common glued-on cover (22), and the cover (22) is provided on the one hand with perforations (26,27,28), so that the folding boxes (21) can be broken off singly or in groups in a closed state, and has on the other hand a lengthways running perforated strip (29) in the area of a row of side walls (3), characterized in that the open end sides form the bottoms of the folding boxes (21) by means of the cover and in that the closed end sides consist of lids (9) with shaped push-in flaps (10) which can be opened and closed again individually.
2. Packaging unit according to claim 1, characterized in that the perforated strip (29) is positioned off-centre in a side section (24) of the cover (22) in such a way that a narrow edge section (35) is formed between the perforation strip (29) and the bottom section (23) of the cover (22).
3. Packaging unit according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the perforation strip (29) can be wholly or partially detached by means of perforations on both sides (30,31), so that the bottom sections (23) of the cover (22) can be opened in the detached part of the folding boxes (21).
4. Packaging unit according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the perforations (30,31) are designed as toothed perforations.
5. Packaging unit according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that notches (19,20) are provided at the ends of the folding line (18) between lid (9) and push-in flap (10).
6. Packaging unit according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that cover flaps (7,8) are formed on the two wall sections (3,5) which are adjacent to the wall section (2) of the shaped plain lid (9).
7. Packaging unit according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the edges of the blank (1) which are adjacent after the folding of the folding boxes (21) are joined together by means of a glueable edge flap (6).
8. Packaging unit according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by folded boxes (21) arranged next to one another in a row in loose units of ten boxes.

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