CARTON FOR SMOKING ARTICLES WITH EXTINGUISHING MEANS AND METHOD OF CHARGING IT

PAQUET DE CIGARETTES OU AUTRES ARTICLES DE TABAC ET SON PROCEDE DE REMPLISSAGE

English Abstract

A carton for smoking articles has means for holding and/or extinguishing used
such articles, which are capable of being handled in conventional handling
machinery. In one embodiment, cigarettes (4) are preassembled in individual
holding tubes (5) before assembly of the charge of cigarettes. The charge is
then inserted into a pre-erected carton or other carton is erected around it.
The articles may have portions (18, 19) of different diameters one being a
tighter fit with a tubular holder (15) than the other, to ensure extinction,
but not being engageable with the holder while the article is still full-
length. The holder (15) may be lined (16) with heat-conductive or -absorbent
material.

French Abstract

L'invention concerne un paquet de cigarettes ou autres articles de tabac équipés pour recevoir et/ou éteindre les articles en question, dont la manipulation est possible au moyen des systèmes classiques. Dans une variante, les cigarettes (4) sont préassemblées dans des tubes de maintien séparés (5) avant d'être assemblées en série pour le paquet. La série est ensuite introduite dans un paquet préconstitué, ou bien le paquet est constitué autour de la série. Les articles peuvent avoir des parties (18, 19) de diamètres différents, une partie coïncidant plus étroitement que l'autre avec son tube de maintien (15) en vue d'assurer l'extinction du produit, sans pouvoir être engagée dans ledit tube tant que le produit conserve sa pleine longueur initiale. Le tube de maintien (15) peut être garni (16) de matériau conduisant ou absorbant la chaleur.

Claims

13

CLAIMS:


1. A carton (1,1') containing both a preassembled
charge of (6) smoking articles and holder means
(5,9,13,13') for holding used ones of that charge, the
holder means including a tube or tubes (5,9,12,12')
characterized in that the tube or tubes include a
heat-conductive heat-dispersive or deodorant inner layer
(16) for contacting a used article.
2. A carton according to claim 1 wherein the layer
is a carbon-containing layer.
3. A carton (1,1') containing both a preassembled
charge (6) of smoking articles (4) and holder means
(5,9,13,13') for holding used ones of that charge, the
holder means being or including a tube (5,9,12,12'),
each smoking article having portions (18,19) of two
diameters, characterized in that the article in its
unused state is engageable in the carton only by means
of one of the portions (18) having a lesser diameter
with a tube (5,9,12,12') of said holding means
(5,9,13,13') but in a used state being more tightly
engageable with one end thereof by means of the other
of the portions (19) to give better assurance of oxygen
exhaustion in the tube.
4. A carton according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim
3 wherein the tubes are separate said tubes (5) fitted
-


14
individually to individual unused smoking articles (4).
5. A carton according to claim 4 wherein the
holder means is an assembly of said tubes (10)
separated in the carton (1') from the charge (6).
6. A carton according to any one of the preceding
claims wherein the holding means is a container
(13,13') separated in the carton (1') from the charge
(6) and having at least one said tube (12,12') for
introduction of the used article into the container.
7. A method of packing smoking articles (4) in a
carton (1,1') together with means (5,9,13,13') for
holding used such articles which include a tube
(5,9,12,12'), which includes
i) assembling a charge (6) of at least the
smoking articles
and ii) erecting the carton around that charge
as well as the holding means.
8. A method of packing smoking articles (4) in a
carton (1,1') together with holder means (5,9,13,13')
for holding used such articles, which includes
i) assembling a charge (6) of at least the
smoking articles
and ii) inserting the assembled charge together
with the holding means into a pre-erected said carton.
9. A method according to claim 7 or claim 8 which
includes the preliminary step of assembling each




smoking article (4) with an individual tubular holder
means (5) and then performing step (i) on the assembled
articles (4) and means (5).
10. A method according to claim 7 or claim 8
wherein the charge (6) of smoking articles is placed
side by side with holder means (9,13,13') in the
carton.
11. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 10
wherein the smoking articles (4) have portions (18,19)
of two diameters, the article in its unused state being
engageable in the carton only by means of one of the
portions (18) having a lesser diameter with the tube or
tubes (5,9,12,12') of said holder means (5,9,13,13').
12. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 11
wherein the holding tube or tubes include a
heat-conductive, heat-dispersive or deodorant inner layer
(16).

Description

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CARTON FOR SMOKING ARTICLES WlTH EXI INGUISHING MEANS AND MFI'HOD OF
CHARGING lT

FIELD OF THE lNv~NllON




This invention relates to cartons for smoking
articles and in particular but not exclusively for
cigarettes.
The present invention is concerned with

providing a carton which allows for the extinguishing
and retention of a used or part-used smoking article.
For brevity the smoking article will be referred to as
a cigarette hereafter and will be exemplified for
cigarettes. It is concerned also with methods of
charging such cartons.



BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There have been numerous prior proposals for
cigarette cartons having additional functions and in
particular cartons have been proposed which incorporate
ashtrays or compartments in which used cigarettes or
butts can be stored. See for example US-A-4886161 and
US-A-4789059. In EP-A-586233 a flexible divider is
provided on one side which of which unused cigarettes
are held in the carton and to the other side of which
used cigarettes are returned - these being cigarettes


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oE a special type which do not ~i m;ni sh in length upon
smoking.
The purpose of the present invention is however
primarily to provide means by which a used cigarette is
safely extinguished. In some embodiments it will be
firmly retained in the carton while in others it may be
removed by the user and discarded. Retention is
p~eferred because of the environmental advantages o~
not having to dispose o~ discarded cigarette butts.
In US-A-4793478 a block is mounted inside a
cigarette carton. The block has a slanted upper face
and a plurality of parallel tubes formed in it which
are to receive respectively a cigarette, with the end
of the cigarette accessible above the sloping face. It
is clear that a tube which has been vacated by a
cigarette could be used therea~ter for extinguishing
and receiving that cigarette again, though this use is
not disclosed. In US-A-4207976 a cigarette butt is
inserted through the base of the carton to be held in a
tube in a block in the carton and to push up a new
cigarette in the same tube. However, the positioning
in manu~acturing terms of cigarettes in blocks of this
type would be a matter o~ extreme di~iculty.
In GB-A-2275258 a grid ~or the reception o~
cigarettes in a carton is formed by a plurality o~
tubes secured together. The tubes have steps or


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shoulders in them so that accessible ends o~ the
cigarettes are presented in a sloping array. In US-A-
3960270 a grid is ~ormed with detent means interacting
with a sliding lid o~ a carton to allow progressive
presentation o~ cigarettes stored in the grid.
In Japanese Patent Applications JP-A-6-46822
and 6-70740 are disclosures o~ cartons with two
portions, one with a grid ~or receiving cigarettes and
the other having one or more tapered extinguishing
tubes into which used cigarettes are put. It is also
disclosed that butts may be stored in the cells o~ the
grid.
It is a common ~eature o~ all these proposals
that there is a pre-~ormed grid into which cigarettes
must be loaded ~either be~ore or a~ter insertion o~ the
grid into the carton or ~ormation o~ the carton around
the grid).
In EP-A-0077867 it is stated that a charge o~
cigarettes may be inserted into a carton which has a
~alse bottom. Used cigarettes may be inserted into a
container ~ormed by that ~alse bottom, through a tube
in a side o~ the carton.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides cartons which
have extinguishing means and in some cases'retention
and storage means ~or used cigarettes but which at the
same time allow ~or the extremely high manu~acturing
speeds which are required in economic terms ~or objects
o~ this nature. Furthermore, they are ~or the most
part adaptable either to insertion o~ the charge into a

AME~D S) IEET

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preformed carton or, as is more common in this art, the
formation o~ a carton around a prqassembled charge.
In a first general embodiment of this invention
a carton of cigarettes has, surrounding part of the
length of each cigarette, a tube which is a
sufficiently close fit for the cigarette to extinguish
a lighted such cigarette when placed in it, each tube
being discrete and separate from each other tube. Such
a charged carton is assembled first by fitting
individually a tube onto a cigarette so as to leave one
end of the cigarette free and preferably with the other
end of the cigarette flush with one,end of the tube,
assembling a collocation of such tubed cigarettes and
inserting that collocation into an erected carton or
erecting a carton from a blank around that collocation
so that the free ends of the cigarettes are exposed at
an opening end of the carton. All of these operations
can be done on st~n~rd machines, the insertion of the
cigarette into the tube being done on a filter-tip
assembler machine; and the ~im~n~ions of the carton so
obtained can be extremely similar to, if not identical
to, those of a st~n~d carton.
The tubes involved are preferably tubes of
substantially rigid card assembled by spiral winding in
known manner and may have two or more layers. An

innermost layer o~ the tube may be a heat dispersion or


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insulation layer such as for example a carbon-
containing layer and such a layer especially if it is
carbon may also have a deodorant activity.
In another general embodiment of the invention
a charged carton contains in one portion a standard
collocation of cigarettes. By a standard collocation
we mean a shaped bundle of for example 15 or 20 or 25
cigarettes assembled in standard machinery and
enwrapped in a conventional foil-backed paper wrapping.
This part of the carton may be defined by a
conventional carton inner frame.
In the other portion of the carton there is
provided one or more extinguishing tubes. In one
embodiment a plurality of tubes is tight packed into
that portion of the carton, preferably having shaped
upper ends so as to guide a downwardly directed burning
end of a cigarette into a central one of the tubes. In
another embodiment the second portion of the carton is
occupied by a closed container into which the one or
more extinguishing tubes debouches. The length of the
extinguishing tube should be sufficient to ensure
extinction of a cigarette placed in it but may be short
enough that there is room below it within the container
for a cigarette end which is pushed through the tube to
be able to get clear of the tube. In these embodiments
the tubes may be of card or like material as mentioned


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above or may be moulded or extruded plastics material
tubes, and the container may be of plastics material.
The invention also provides for assuring oxygen
exhaustion within an extinguishing tube while
permitting the ready withdrawal of an unused cigarette
from a tube. Ready withdrawal implies a clearance
between the inner wall of the tube and the cigarette
and that clearance obviously offers a path for oxygen
from the ambient air. To help assure extinction, the
invention proposes that the diametrical dimension of a
portion o~ the cigarette should be an interference fit
with a tube which receives that cigarette; however, in
the condition in which the unused cigarette is
presented in a carton the interference fit portion of
the cigarette is free of the tube. As soon as an
appreciable length of the cigarette has been burnt off
however, insertion of the cigarette into the tube will
bring the interference fit portion o~ the cigarette
into engagement with the tube thereby sealing the tube.
The interference fit portion may be assured for
example by a thick overwrap on a filter or by a
specifically-provided seal ring projection either on a
filter assembly or near the mouth end of an un~iltered ;;
cigarette.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

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Embodiments of the invention will now be
described with reference to the accompanying drawings,
wherein:
Figure 1 is a perspective view o~ a first
carton charged with cigarettes;
Figure 2 is a partial section on the line II-
II;
Figure 3 is a perspective view of a second
carton embodying the invention;
Figure 4 is a section on the line IV-IV;
Figure 5 is a top view of the second
embodiment;
Figure 6 is a perspective view of the third
embodiment;
Figure 7 is a section on the line VII-VII of
Figure 6 and Figure 8 is shown in modification; and
Figure 9 is an enlarged view of a cigarette
having an inter~erence ~it portion.



DESCRIPTIQN QF PARTICYLAR EMBQDIMENTS
In Figure 1 there is shown what is in principle
a standard "flip-top" carton with a body 1 to which is
hinged a lid 2 openable to expose the mouthpiece or
filter ends 3 o~ a charge of (usually twenty)
cigarettes 4, and retained in its closed position
against accidental opening by inner ~rame 7.


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For a substantial portion, e.g. about two-
thirds of its length, each cigarette is surrounded by a
tube 5. The tube 5 may be (as described below) a
hollow spiral wound tube of two or more layers o~ card
or may be a plastics material extrudate, ~or example.
The fit between the cigarette and the tube
should be just enough to resist accidental displacement
o~ one in relation to the other and to allow handling
of the two together.
Each cigarette 4 with its respective tube 5 is
preassembled together on a filter tip assembler such as
a Hauni MAX 5 or MAX 80 machine and the assembly thus
made is treated as if it were a cigarette, being passed
to a packing and assembling machine which in the
conventional way prepares a charge of cigarettes, e.g.
twenty in number, in the desired dimensions. This
assembled charge is then either inserted into a
preassembled carton 1 or as is more usual has a carton
1 assembled around it, both o~ these being operations
which are per se standard. The charge may have a
wrapping around such as the conventional aluminium
~oil/paper wrap.
The smoker having opened the carton can select
any o~ the ends 3 presented to him, smoke that
cigarette and then reinsert its remains into the tube 5
thereby extinguishing the butt end and at the same time


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storing it in the carton and avoiding distasteful
littering of the environment.
If as will be described the cigarette has-an
interference fit portion then the tube will engage the
S used cigarette more firmly than it engaged the unused
one.
Figures 3, 4 and 5 show a second embodiment
where in a carton 1' with a lid 2 a conventional charge
6 of cigarettes is held, pre~erably wlth the provision
of the conventional inner frame 7.
The charge 6 may be wrapped in for example
conventional ~oil-backed paper.
In a second inner frame 7' in the carton 1'
there are tight packed a plurality, here nine, of tubes
9 analogous to tubes 5 of the first embodiment.
Upper ends lO of the tubes are pre~erably
shaped so as to define a concavity which will tend to
guide a smoker inserting a part-used cigarette to the
central one of the tubes 9. Reception of the cigarette
in any of these tubes will result in its extinction
especially if there is the interference fit feature
which will be described in more detail below. The
upper ends 10 may be covered by a hinged cover flap 8
of the second inner frame 7'.
This embodiment can be assembled on standard
machinery treating the charge 6 on the one hand and the

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bundle of tubes 9 on the other as sub-assemblies to be
held together while being inserted into a pre-erected
carton or while having a carton erected around them.
The tubes 9 may be adhered together to assist in this
handling stage.
In a third embodiment seen in Figures 6 and 7,
a carton 1' with lid 2 again has two portions, one of
which is occupied by a conventional wrapped charge 6 of
cigarettes.
In the other portion 11 of the carton 1' there
is an extinguishing tube 12 which debouches into a
closed container 13. The length of the tube 12 should
be such as to assure as far as possible extinction of
the coal of a cigarette placed in it but nevertheless
its lower end should be sufficiently clear of the floor
of the container 13 that a cigarette end pushed through
it will be able to get clear axially of the tube so as
not to impede a next cigarette. As in the previous
embodiment the charge 6 and the container 13 are
treated as sub-assemblies for purposes o~ charging a
pre-erected carton or erecting the carton around them.
Figure 8 shows how a container 13' may be the
full height of the carton, with tube 12' being inset
into a depending tube or funnel 14 in the top wall of
the container.
Figure 9 shows in more detail a pre~erred form

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o~ cigarette and tube combination. A tube here given
the reference 15 but which may be a tube 5, 9, 12 or
12' o~ the embodiments described, has on its inne-r ~ace
a layer 16 of heat-insulant or heat-conductor which in
particular may be a layer o~ carbon-loaded paper.
There is a slight clearance 17, somewhat exaggerated in
Figure 9, between the tobacco rod 18 of the cigarette 4
and the layer 16. In practice this clearance should be
so slight that there is not quite ~ree movement o~ the
cigarette in relation to the tube.
The mouth end 3 o~ the cigarette is however
either wholly or partially o~ a diameter which is a
tight inter~erence ~it with the layer 16. The
di~erence between diameters o~ the mouth end and
tobacco rod has also been exaggerated in Figure 9.
This interference ~it may ~or example be
achieved by the use o~ an overwrap material 19 to unite
a ~ilter assembly to the tobacco rod or by the speci~ic
provision o~ a projecting ring 20 by wrapping a strip
around the cigarette, either in addition to or
alternatively to an overwrap 19, the ridge 20 then
providing the tight inter~erence ~it with the inside o~
the tube.
The position o~ the portion o~ the cigarette
which forms the tight inter~erence ~it should be such
that when the cigarette is unused and is being


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presented as is seen in Figure 9 the inter~erence ~it
portion is clear of the ~ree end 21 of the tube but
that once there has been appreciable use of the
cigarette so that its length diminishes placing the
cigarette back into the tube will cause the
interference fit portion to engage with that tube
thereby giving better assurance of oxygen exhaustion
and of retention of the used cigarette in the tube.
Such an expedient can clearly, and advantageously, be
used in conjunction with any o~ the embodiments of
carton which have been described.

Representative Drawing