Carton

Abstract

The present invention concerns a carton for holding granular or other products in a bag. The carton comprises a substantially rectangular sleeve having front, rear and side panels (1, 2, 3). The front and rear panels have flaps (21, 22) which resiliently engage within a channel (20) formed when the side panels (3) are deformed inwardly along crease patterns (5), the resulting inter-engagement of components holding the top of the carton securely together. A bag is secured and sealed internally of the carton by being located under one of the flaps (22) which is biased to clamp the bag.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of International Application No. PCT / GB2003 / 004825.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a carton for holding products such as cereal. There are many types of carton and each one must be carefully designed and prepared for its particular application. Cartons are usually made up from a blank, which can be made from a planar material such as cardboard or a malleable plastic for example acetate. [0004] 2. Description of Related Art [0005] Conventionally, cereals and other dry granular or grain-like products are sold, for example, by establishments such as supermarkets and high street retail outlets in standard rectangular shaped cardboard cartons where the product inside the carton is contained in a sealed air-tight bag. [0006] The carton usually contains numerous servings. In a household, servings are dispensed over a period of time f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a reclosable carton comprising front, rear and side panels; the side panels being configured to deform when the front and rear panels are brought together, such that one or more holding areas are created between an inside face of a side panel and an inside face of one of the front or rear panels, the one or more holding areas having an increased holding effect as the front and rear panels are brought closer together, wherein the front and rear panels are each provided with a flap at a top portion thereof, and wherein in a reclosure operation, the front and rear panels are movable together and the front and rear panel flaps are positionable in a common one of said holding areas; at least one of said front and rear panel flaps having an interference fit with said common holding area.

[0047] The present invention will operate on existing packing lines with little or no modification. This is beneficial to many manufacturers, who may have several factories worldwide, as there is little or no cost associated with implementing the present invention worldwide. The cost implications are within the tooling for carton manufacture and are minimal.

Problems solved by technology

There are several disadvantages associated with the typical cardboard cereal carton.

Firstly, the re-closing mechanism on the carton tends not to work particularly well as the tab and slot engage only to a limited extent.

The demand for economy in the carton does not in this regard however allow for additional material to be utilised to make a satisfactory closure mechanism.

Secondly, the bag (which holds the cereal) is not securely held closed within the carton once opened and tends to unravel itself and leave the contents open to the environment.

Consequently there is degradation in the quality of the product with regard to freshness.

A third disadvantage is a result of the combination of the previously mentioned two problems.

If the carton is knocked over, for example whilst on the breakfast table, it is likely that the product will fall out.

A disadvantage of such tab and slot arrangements is that once the tab is entered into the slot and then subsequently removed, the closure tends to fail on further use.

Another disadvantage of such arrangements is that the closure mechanism covers up a certain amount of decoration area that can be printed on the surface of the pack.

This area is viewed as valuable for advertising and a further disadvantage of the tab and slot closure arrangement is that a slot hole has to be cut into the advertising area.

Moreover, cuts and slots in various areas are disadvantageous to the strength and integrity of the carton.

Cuts and slots in the outside of packs are furthermore not desirable to retailers and manufacturers because they are not “tamper-evident”.

The requirement of cutting the top flap is burdensome on the user.

Moreover, the carton requires relatively large amounts of material in its manufacture, since the top flaps must span the entire top of the carton.

This arrangement however suffers from the problem that repeated use of the carton rapidly reduces the effectiveness of the re-closure mechanism, in that once inserted into and then removed from the recess the flaps lose their resiliency.

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