Receptacles – Closures – Having means for securing or retaining closure in its closed...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-18
2001-05-15
Newhouse, Nathan J. (Department: 3727)
Receptacles
Closures
Having means for securing or retaining closure in its closed...
C220S004210, C229S122220, C206S434000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230919
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a packaging box or small container, in particular for food products, of the type comprising a closed crown provided with at least two opposite transverse windows, a thermoformed bottom and a thermoformed cover mounted detachably on the bottom.
Packaging boxes, in particular but not exclusively of transparent plastic material, have had increasing success in the food field because the moderate cost permitted by thermoforming synthetic material. Thus, the development of mass vending, and also rapid service, requires economical and hygienic packaging, which lets the contents be seen.
Known packaging in the form of small containers provided with a cover, however suffer from a certain poor appearance due to the difficulty of applying a label or a decoration. Thus, only the cover in fact is available for such a label which will be glued externally onto the cover, or simply disposed in the box so as to be readable from outside, through the cover.
There are also known boxes for food products using a crown, for example of cardboard or synthetic material, provided with windows. In the case of a box of this type according to FR-A-2 741 324, the crown bears and locks against the bottom and the cover which are articulated by means of a connecting member, the assembly forming a triptych. Such a structure, if it is satisfactory for large boxes such as pastry boxes, is not suitable for small boxes or small containers. Moreover, thermoforming of the triptych can be costly in material.
In French patent application No. 97 00292 (not published at the date of the present application), there has been proposed a packaging box in which the bottom and/or the cover are in the form of a triptych and enclose an internal crown provided with windows. This box is again complicated and costly to produce and use.
Another drawback common to packaging boxes which have been described, is the difficulty of reuse of the box after opening, because the triptych or triptychs must be carefully restored in place with the crown for such a reuse.
Still another drawback resides in the presence of the crown within the packaging, which can be the cause of pollution of the contents.
The present invention accordingly seeks to provide a new packaging of the type indicated in the introduction, which does not have the drawbacks of known packages. In particular, the packaging according to the present invention must be economic to produce, to use and to reuse, as well as not giving rise to the risk of pollution of the contents.
To this end, the packaging box according to the invention is characterized in that the bottom or the cover have a peripheral opening provided with an outwardly projecting return with which coacts the peripheral edge of the cover or bottom respectively, for closing the packaging box, the crown being disposed along the external wall of the piece, bottom or cover, provided with said return, in abutment against said return, said crown being locked in position by means of locking members coacting with said crown.
The packaging box according to the invention has all the advantages of presentation, use and reuse, of a conventional box such as a small container, whilst benefitting from the decorative crown and/or marking locked on the exterior without risk of pollution of the contents.
According to a first embodiment of the invention, the locking members coact with the windows of the crown.
Thus, according to one form of this first embodiment of the invention, the return is secured to the bottom, one edge of each of the opposite windows of the crown comprising a bendable tongue coacting with a locking means.
According to one embodiment, said locking means is constituted by a snap engagement cutout formed in the cover.
As a modification, said locking means comprises a first member at the free end of a tongue complementary to a second member formed at the free end of the other tongue.
According to a second form of this first embodiment of the invention, the locking members comprise at least one tongue formed flap of the piece having no return and coacting with the upper edge of the window of the crown.
As a modification, said tongue coacts with a cut provided in the peripheral wall of the piece comprising the return, adjacent the upper edge of a window adjacent said return.
In a second embodiment of the invention, the crown comprises at least two through openings, separate from the windows, provided adjacent the edge of the crown coming into abutment against the return of the piece, bottom or cover, and through each of which engages a locking member of said piece, bottom or cover, said locking member being positioned in the external wall of the piece below said return, the flange of the other piece, cover or bottom, forming a snap-in edge below the free end of the return of the bottom or cover.
According to one form of this second embodiment, said blocking members are constituted by projections, projecting from the external wall of the piece, bottom or cover, outwardly, said snap-in edge of the other piece, cover or bottom, constituting the complementary locking members.
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patent: 2 741 324 (1997-05-01), None
Groupe Guillin
Newhouse Nathan J.
Young & Thompson
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