Package for consumer goods susceptible to shock

The box-like package made of a thermoformable plastics sheet being of a one-piece, punched blank provided with folding scores. Supporting profiles are molded out inwardly or outwardly from individual regions of the blank by means of thermoforming. These supporting profiles resiliently support the packed product which is susceptible to shock; they are therefore preferably adapted to the contours of the product. The entire pack, including the supporting profiles, forms a single part, so that additional supporting inserts are superfluous. The most important advantages: saving in packaging material, dispensing with troublesome to handle additional inserts, good stackability of the sheets before assembly, readily recyclable monomaterial package.

The invention relates to a process for producing a package from a 
thermoformable plastics sheet as well as a package produced by this 
process. 
As is known, in many cases, packages for consumer goods are not only 
intended to enclose the product but at the same time support it 
resiliently inside the package in such a way that the product which is 
susceptible to shock or is fragile bears against supporting elements and 
is protected against shocks by their cushioning effect. The known packs, 
which are used, for example, for chocolate products such as Easter eggs, 
as well as for glassware etc., therefore have in many cases additional 
inserts which on the one hand bear against the inside wall of the pack and 
on the other hand enclose the product to be supported in a cushioning 
manner at at least two mutually opposite points. 
In the case of this known type of package, for which German Utility Model 
DE-GM 85 30488 describes a possible design for example, outer pack and 
insert are always two separate package parts, which are usually produced 
from different materials, for example a cardboard outer pack, possibly 
with viewing window, and a thermoformed plastic insert. Another example of 
such a product-protecting insert made of thermoformable material is 
disclosed by French Patent Application No. 2 306 140. The insert described 
there could in principle also be used without outer pack, which however, 
due to the complicated outer surfaces thereby formed, produces a package 
which is in no way similar to a box and therefore is poor to present and 
awkward to take hold of and can be stacked only with difficulty. 
The known product-protecting additional inserts have a number of 
disadvantages. They require relatively complex production and additional 
expenditure on material, energy, time and costs. In addition, the inserts 
have to be inserted separately, usually manually, when packing the 
product, and finally packs of this type are not stackable. 
It is the object of the present invention to overcome these disadvantages 
of the known packs and accordingly to propose a package of the type 
defined at the beginning which in particular ensures the satisfactory, 
shock-absorbing support of the product, without additional supporting 
elements having to be inserted within the same, and which moreover offers 
a handy and appealing appearance. 
This object is achieved by the invention defined in the characterizing part 
of patent claim 1 as well as patent claim 3. Preferred embodiments emerge 
from the dependent patent claims. 
The integration according to the invention of thermoformed moldings, in 
particular supporting profiles, into a blank punched on the cardboard-box 
making principle and scored for folding brings very considerable 
advantages. For instance, the supporting profiles do not require any 
additional material, which results in a material saving of 30 to 50% in 
comparison with conventional packs provided with insertable additional 
elements and thus of course consequently also means correspondingly less 
scrap. Furthermore, the blanks, delivered flat, can be nested one inside 
the other and can thus be stacked well, so that little storage space is 
required. In addition, there is no need for separate storage of outer pack 
and supporting elements. Since the package is in one piece, the filling of 
the packaged product and the assembly of the package are also 
significantly simplified. What is more, the ready-assembled package can 
also be stacked well for sale and, moreover, is very presentable, in 
particular because in the design as a see-through pack (using transparent 
film) it can be seen into well and in a visually appealing way from all 
sides. 
A further advantage of the package according to the invention is that it is 
produced from a single material, since it thus meets the increasingly 
topical, ecologically based requirement for packages made of 
monomaterials, which can be recycled without first being segregated into 
different materials. 
The invention can be applied to all common types of box, i.e. folding 
boxes, telescope boxes etc., and the package may be made from transparent 
or colored sheet, it also being possible to choose a conductive sheet for 
electrical special articles.

The sheet 1 shown in FIG. 1, which is produced, for example, from 
polyethylene, polyester or polyvinyl chloride and can be assembled into 
the right-parallelepipedal pack represented in FIG. 3a, has four side 
walls 2 to 5, a base 6 with the associated additional flaps 7, 8 and 9 as 
well as a lid 10 with a support flap 11 and an additional flap 12. All 
four side walls 2 to 5 are provided with an inwardly molded-in supporting 
profile 2a, 3a, 4a and 5a; also in the base 6 there is an upwardly 
protruding supporting profile 6a and in the upper supporting flap 11 a 
downwardly or inwardly protruding supporting profile 11a molded in. All 
individual elements mentioned and visible in the drawing form a single 
part, which has been deformed under the application of heat in a 
corresponding basic mold and subsequently trimmed and provided with 
folding scores. This part resembles a blank, as known in similar form from 
cardboard-box making, but provided with integrated supporting profiles 
(2a, 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a, 11a), produced by thermoforming. 
The supporting profiles 2a to 6a and 11a are adapted to the contours of the 
article to be resiliently supported. In the present case, this article is 
a right-parallelepipedal ceramic vase 13, the smooth walls of which bear 
against the supporting profiles of the pack with slight resilient 
pressure. 
In FIG. 2 it is illustrated by arrows how the sheet represented in FIG. 1 
can be assembled with just a few manipulations into the pack according to 
FIG. 3a. 
The side walls 2 and 5 abutting each other during assembly may, if need be, 
be joined firmly by means of a joining tab 5', for example by the joining 
tab 5' being welded or adhesively bonded to the side wall 2. In the case 
of a special embodiment (cf. FIG. 3b), for the purpose of particularly 
simple joining of the side walls abutting one another, special niches 23 
are molded in the joining tab 5', into which niches bulges 24 
correspondingly molded in the side wall 2 can be pressed in a 
pushbutton-like manner. 
FIG. 4 shows a further example of the pack according to the invention. 
Here, the article which is to be inserted into the pack denoted by 15 is a 
bottle 14, and accordingly lateral bounding profiles 16 are molded out 
from the pack walls, which profiles enclose the bottle profile. In 
principle, it would suffice to provide two of such profiles opposite each 
other, whereas in FIG. 4 four profiles 16, offset by 90.degree. in each 
case with respect to one another, are shown. Base and lid may in this case 
be molded according to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 or else adapted even better to the 
outlines of bottle neck and bottle bottom. 
The pack 17 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 serves for receiving a chocolate Easter 
egg 18. The two mutually opposite narrow side walls are provided with 
curved supporting profiles 19 and 20, which are adapted to the end 
sections of the egg shape. The base 21, shown in FIG. 5, of the pack has a 
supporting profile 22 with a somewhat flatter curvature, corresponding to 
the egg body. 
FIG. 7 illustrates a further illustrative embodiment of a pack according to 
the invention, which can be used, for example, for a Chinese vase 25. In 
the case of this pack, only one supporting flap 26 and a base part 27 of 
the blank have supporting profiles 26a and 27a. The supporting profiles 
are molded in such a way that they also support the article laterally and 
thereby hold the latter firmly in its position from all sides. In this 
embodiment, the assembled pack produces a box with outer walls without any 
profiling. It can therefore be handled particularly advantageously and 
allows an excellent view of the packed article. 
The thermoforming can in many cases be performed by means of a single basic 
mold, into which the profiles required by the respective shape of the 
article to be packed can be inserted. By simply exchanging the profiles, 
consequently a single basic mold can be used for the production of packs 
for variously shaped articles. 
The process described can also be used, if need be, for producing packages 
which--quite irrespective of the susceptibility of the product to 
shock--have one or more wall portions provided with a decorative profile.