Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02203~88 1997-04-24
PACKAGE FOR COMPONENTS
OF HAND MADE CIGARETTES
SCOPE OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a packaging system for domestic hand made
cigarettes using fine cut loose tobacco and pre-made filter tipped cigarette
tubes. The packaging system includes a reusable canister in which loose
tobacco may be provided in the bottom. Preferably, a removable divider
separates the loose tobacco from a container of cigarette tubes placed on top
10 of the divider. The canister with lid removed provides ready access to permitremoval of the container of cigarette tubes. The large space within the
canister and above the tobacco provides a working space in which loose
tobacco may be picked up and selected for purposes of use in a device for
hand-m~kin~ finished cigarettes. Preferably, the container for the pre-made
15 filter tipped cigarette tubes supports the tubes on their filter tips when
positioned in the canister on top of the divider.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are several well recognized advantages in hand made cigarettes.
Aside from the obvious cost advantage, hand made cigarettes offer the
20 consumer the opportunity to customize the cigarette to their own prere~ellce
for tobacco weight, firmness, draw resistance and the like. Two drawbacks
associated with hand made cigarettes are the inability or difficulty in
positioning of a filter on the end of the hand made cigarette and the
appearance. These two problems were overcome by pre-made filter tipped
25 cigarette tubes which can be loaded with tobacco by use of, for example, a
device described in U.S. Patent 4,771,793 and sold under the trade-mark
SUSSEX.
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A convenient kit for packaging loose tobacco and cigarette tubes
comprises the tobacco in a separate foil sealed container and a box or boxes
of filter tipped cigarette tubes. The tobacco container includes a separate lid
with optional moistening strip where the foil seal once removed is discarded.
S The cigarette tubes are stored in rows, lying flat in the boxes. The tobacco
container and boxes are packaged together in a kit. The tobacco container
and boxes can of course be separated and hence, misplaced. The box of
cigarette tubes is normally of light paper weight construction which can be
crushed.
The step of loading the tobacco into the cigarette tube filling device
can result in considerable mess and wasted loose tobacco because the
container for the loose tobacco is of a size to only accommodate the tobacco.
On pulling tobacco from the container for use in the filling device, spillage oftobacco outside of the container can result.
In accordance with this invention, a p~ck~ing system is provided
which overcomes several of the above problems and provides many
unexpected advantages over these prior art systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with various aspects of this invention, a p~clr~ging
20 system is provided for hand made cigarettes which provides superior tobacco
h~n~lling and improved cigarette tube storage all within a single canister.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the p~c-k~gin~ system
for loose tobacco and pre-made filter tipped cigarette tubes comprises:
i) a canister with removable lid having stored therein loose~5 tobacco in its bottom portion; and
ii) a container having stacked therein, a plurality of cigarette
tubes in number at least equal to a number of cigarettes to be made from the
loose tobacco;
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iii) the cigarette tube container having an outer perimeter
dimension which permits placement of the container in the canister on top of
the tobacco with the removable lid in place on the canister.
Product identifuation in advertising may be placed on the periphery of
5 the canister. The canister and optionally the container for the cigarette tubes
can be reused for other purposes. They may be made of high quality,
dishwasher safe plastics material.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAVVINGS
Plefelled embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawings
10 wherein:
Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of the canister for loose
tobacco and container of cigarette tubes;
Figure 2 is a section through the assembled canister of Figure 1; and
Figure 3 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the
15 cigarette tube container.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
A plefelled embodiment of the packaging system of this invention is
shown in Figure 1. The p~ck~ging system 10 has a canister tub 12 and a
~ twist-on canister lid 14. The tub 12 has a neck portion 16 with threads 18 for
20 eng~ging the lid 14 to permit secure fastening of the lid to the tub. The neck
16 has an upper rim 20 which permits the heat sealing thereto of a suitable
moisture, vapour and gas barrier or foil 22. The lid 14 during shipping is
threaded onto the neck 16 over top of the barrier 22. The lid 14 includes a
handle portion 24 which facilitates unthreading of the lid and removal from
25 the tub. The tub has the fine cut loose tobacco charge 26 provided in the
bottom thereof where ~referably a suitable divider 28 is positioned on top of
the tobacco charge.
A container 30 is provided for the pre-made filter tip cigarette tubes
32. The container 30 has a crush-proof wall 34 where the container is
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~rererably inverted in the canister tub 12, with top wall 36 lowermost and
bottom wall 38 uppermost. The cigarette tube container 30 is lowered into
the tub 12 to rest on top of the divider 28. It is understood that if the divider
is not used, the container 30 may rest directly on top of the tobacco 26. In
5 order to remove the cigarette tube container from the tub 12, the seal 22 is
broken after the lid 14 is removed. The cigarette tube container 30 is
removed from the tub by grasping the handpull 40. In order to gain access to
the tobacco 26, the divider 28 is removed by grasping handpull 42. It is
appreciated that the handpull 40 or 42 may be of a variety of configurations
10 while facilit~ting withdrawal of the container or divider when the tub 12 is in
the upright position. It is also appreciated that the container could also be
removed by pinrlling its upper edge and removing the container. The same
technique may be used in removing the divider 28.
The assembled p~ck~ging system 10 is shown in Figure 2 where the lid
15 14 is secured to the container tub 12 by threaded engagement at 18. On the
underside 44 of the lid within handle 24 is a pad of water absorbent material
46. After the canister is opened, a few drops of water may be placed on the
pad 46 to keep the moisture content at the desired level to ensure that the
tobacco 26 does not dry out. The cigarette tube container 30 rests on top of
20 or above the divider 28 whereby pull 42 is co~ ressed ~g~in~t the upper face
48 of the divider. In accordance with this embodiment, the divider 28 may
rest on an ~nmll~r shoulder 54 provided in the interior wall 58 of the tub in
region 60. The height of the c~ni~ter tub 12 is such that when the inverted
container 30 is resting on the upper face 48 of the divider 28, the bottom 38
25 of container is below the level of the seal 22.
The individual cigarette tubes are stacked in the container 30.
Assuming that the container is lying flat, the tubes are stacked in a vertical
orientation that is they extend in a direction parallel to the lon~itu-lin~l access
of the container. The tubes may be positioned with the cigarette filter tip
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portion 50 being uppermost in the container 30 when the container is
positioned in the canister or lowermost in the container. Such orientation of
the cigarette tubes depends to some extent on the type of container used and
how access is provided to the tubes after the container is removed from the
5 canister. In accordance with the particular embodiment shown in Figure 2,
the individual cigarette tubes 32 have their filter tip portion 50 resting on the
top wall 36 of inverted package 30. During shipping, storage and h~n(lling of
the container 10 it has been found that the structurally stronger filter tip
portion 50 of each cigarette tube supports the weight of the tube and hence,
10 avoids crushing or misconfiguration of the much weaker cigarette tube open
end 52.
The outer perimeter dimensions of the top 36 of the inverted container
30 is less than the inner diameter of the lower portion 56 of the tub 12 to
permit placement of or resting of the container in the canister 12. Ideally,
15 after the canister is opened, the divider 28 is discarded. Should one wish to store the cigarette tubes to avoid accidental crushing of the tubes or
misplacement of the tubes, the tube container 30 can simply be placed back in
the tub 12 to rest on top of the rem~inin~ tobacco 26. As the tobacco level
decreases in the container, the cigarette tube container 30 slides down further
20 within the tub 12 without binding and becoming stuck therein. Alternatively,
the divider 28 may be retained and placed back in the tub on the shoulder 54
to support the cigarette tube container 30 in the inverted position above the
loose tobacco.
The cigarette tube container 30 may be opened at its top 36 or bottom
25 38 in order to permit access to the cigarette tubes. In order to minimi7e tube
open end damage, if the container is opened at its bottom 38, it is pref~lled
that the bottom 38 come off in its entirety. This permits dumping of the tubes
on a work surface so that they may be carefully picked up individually and
loaded with tobacco. Alternately, the container may be opened at its top 36
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to permit individual tube withdrawal by grasping the sturdier tube filter tip
and extracting the tube from the container 30 in its now upright position. The
opening for the container bottom 38 or top 36 may be in the form of a
removable lid, a removal foil or the like. As shown in Figure 1, the inverted
5 container has a removable top 36 which is in the form of an end cap 62 with
skirt 64 which friction fits over sidewall 34. Seals 66 hold the end cap 62 on
the inverted container to prevent container end cap opening as the container is
removed from the canister tub.
An alternative embodiment for the cigarette tube container is shown in
10 Figure 3. The container 68 has peripheral sidewall 70 and flat bottom 72. A
post 76 is provided on the upper surface 74 of the bottom 72 is a post 76.
The post may be intregal with or connected to the bottom 72 at juncture 78.
The post is located centrally of the interior cavity 80 of the container.
Preferably, the upper portion 82 of the post extends above the height of the
15 rim 84 of the container wall 70. The cavity 80 of the container is filled with
cigarette tubes 30 where in accordance with this preferred embodiment the
filter tipped portions 50 are directed downwardly in the direction of arrow 86
to rest on the upper surface 74 of the bottom 72. The required number of
cigarette tubes are then positioned within the cavity 80 to in essence fill the
20 cavity before the tubes are placed within canister 12. The height of the upper
portion 82 of the post 76 is such that it is below the level of the seal 22 whenthe p~qçk~gin~ system 10 is complete and sealed. After the lid 14 is removed
and the seal 22 discarded, the container 68 of cigarette tubes may be
withdrawn from the canister by grasping the upper portion 82 of the post 76
25 to remove the container from the c~ni~ter. The cigarette tubes 32 may be
removed from the container 68 by delicately grasping the tube open end 52.
This may be somewhat difficult. Hence, with this particular embodiment it
may be prefelable to simply dump the tubes out of the container 68 so that the
tubes may be lifted by way of grasping the sturdier filter tip portion 50.
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After the cigarettes are made, they may be placed back in the container 68
which in turn may be stored in the canister with the lid closed to retain the
desired moisture level in the cigarettes while they are being consumed over a
period of time.
S This form of packaging for loose tobacco and pre-made filter tip
cigarette tubes provides many significant advantages and features. The
system provides a reusable canister which is attractive in appearance. The
exterior of the canister may be printed directly with advertising information
or may have a removable printed sleeve applied to the exterior of the canister
10 and which may be removed to facilitate reuse of the canister. The tobacco is
packaged for freshness within the canister where the canister walls may be
rigid and withstand any rough h~n-lling so as to avoid damage to the tobacco
due to permeation of excessive moisture or other debris. The cigarette tube
container 30 contains the cigarette tubes and ~rerelably supports them in a
15 manner which minimi7es crushing of the cigarette tubes while m~king them
readily available for use in hand m~king cigarettes. The seal 22 ensures
overall freshness of the product and if the canister is packaged under slight
vacuum, the characteristic ingress of air indicates product freshness to the
consumer.
Although prerelled embodiments of the invention have been described
herein in detail, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that variations
may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention.
