Abstract:
A pack for tobacco industry products such as menthol cigarettes, comprises a housing ( 1 ) defining an enclosure containing tobacco industry products ( 4 ) and a pad ( 34 ) disposed in or on the pack, impregnated with the substance for altering characteristics of the tobacco industry products, such as a menthol flavourant, and a removable strip ( 32 ), attached to the pad so that when removed, the substance is released into the pack from the carrier to be adsorbed by the cigarettes. Thus, menthol can be released from the pad into the pack after opening by the consumer, by removal of the strip to boost the level of menthol flavourant in the cigarettes.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to a pack for tobacco industry products adapted to release a substance, for example to refresh or enhance the products with the substance. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The present invention is described herein with reference to “tobacco industry products”. A tobacco industry product as referred to herein is any item made in, or sold by the tobacco industry, typically including a) cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, tobacco for pipes or for roll-your-own cigarettes, (whether based on tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, reconstituted tobacco or tobacco substitutes); b) non-smoking products incorporating tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, reconstituted tobacco or tobacco substitutes such as snuff, snus, hard tobacco, and heat-not-burn products; and c) non-tobacco products such as for example aerosol delivery devices, inhalers, lozenges and gum. This list is not intended to be exclusive, but merely illustrates a range of products which are made and sold in the tobacco industry. 
         [0003]    Menthol-flavoured cigarettes are well-known in the art and comprise a tobacco-based cigarette to which menthol flavouring is added. When consumed, the user experiences the taste of menthol. 
         [0004]    Cigarettes are contained and sold to consumers in cigarette packs which are typically sealed during manufacture to maintain the freshness of the product contained therein. However, once the pack is opened, the product&#39;s freshness deteriorates over time. The tobacco of the cigarettes can become undesirably dry once the pack is opened. Also, the cigarettes may be provided with a flavourant during manufacture, such as menthol, and over time, the menthol flavouring may escape from the product with the result that the consumer experiences menthol levels in the products which are below those prescribed by the manufacturer. Eventually, the menthol flavouring of products contained in an opened pack can be lost to an extent where the article becomes undesirable to the consumer. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    The invention provides a pack for tobacco industry products, comprising a housing defining an enclosure in which a plurality of tobacco industry products can be accommodated, and a carrier disposed in or on the pack, said carrier being arranged to accommodate a substance for altering characteristics of the tobacco industry products when in the pack, wherein the carrier comprises a pad impregnated with the substance, and a removable strip, attached to the carrier so that when removed, the substance is released into the pack from the carrier to be adsorbed by the tobacco industry products. 
         [0006]    Thus, a substance such as flavouring substance can be incorporated into the pack for absorption by tobacco industry products disposed therein for example to replenish or enhance them for the time when the article is to be consumed. 
         [0007]    The pack may comprise an outer shell, an inner frame and a lid, the pad and the strip being disposed between the outer shell and the inner frame and the strip having a portion extending into the lid so that when opened, the strip can be gripped manually and removed from engagement with the pad to release the substance from the pad. 
         [0008]    The pad may be attached to the outer shell, and a membrane may be provided between the outer shell and the pad to prevent the substance in the pad from passing into the outer shell. 
         [0009]    An aperture configuration may be provided in the outer shell overlying the strip to provide a visual indication of whether the strip has been removed from the pack. The inner frame may be of a different appearance from the strip in a region underlying the aperture configuration in the outer shell. 
         [0010]    A wick may be provided to convey the substance from the pad within the enclosure and the wick may comprise a portion of the housing. The wick may be disposed to direct to the substance released from the carrier to a predetermined portion of the enclosure. The inner frame may be permeable to the substance accommodated in the carrier and act as the wick. 
         [0011]    The substance accommodated in the carrier may comprise a flavouring substance such as menthol, or a substance such as water to refresh dry and stale products without additional flavouring thereof. 
         [0012]    The invention also includes a kit for and a method of manufacturing the pack. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]    Embodiments of the present invention are now described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: 
           [0014]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a pack for tobacco industry products comprising cigarettes; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  illustrates the pack of  FIG. 1  with its lid open, exposing a pull strip; 
           [0016]      FIG. 3A  is a front elevational view of the pack illustrated in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0017]      FIG. 3B  is a vertical section of the pack illustrated in  FIG. 3A  along the line B-B; 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the pack of  FIG. 1 , with the lid open and the pull strip in the process of being removed; 
           [0019]      FIG. 5  illustrates the pack of  FIG. 4  with the pull strip removed and the lid open; and 
           [0020]      FIG. 6  illustrates the pack of  FIG. 5  with the pull strip removed and the lid closed. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0021]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  3 , a generally rectangular pack  1  comprises a main body  2  with a hinged lid  3  containing two rows of filter tipped cigarettes  4  which each have a tobacco rod  4 A and filter tip  4 B. The cigarettes  4  may be impregnated with a flavourant such as menthol during manufacture and are contained in a wrapper  5  such as a metallic foil to keep them fresh. The cigarettes within wrapper  5  are contained within an inner frame  30  that fits within outer shell  25  of the main body  2 . The inner frame  30  may be made of a generally porous card material whereas the outer shell  25  may be heavily printed and embossed, rendering it generally impermeable, which assists in retaining flavourant in the tobacco of the cigarettes. Also the pack  1  may be wrapped in a cellophane wrapper, not shown, to seal the pack. 
         [0022]    An elongate, generally rectangular, flexible pull strip  32  made of card or plastics material is disposed on front face  33  of the pack  1 , between the inner frame  30  and outer shell  25 . The pull strip  32  has a manually grippable end  32 A that is revealed when the lid  3  is open, protruding above upper edge  33 A of the front face  33  of the main body  2 . 
         [0023]    The pull strip  32  extends towards the bottom edge  33 B of the front face of the main body  2 . The region  32 B of the lowermost end of the pull strip  32  overlies a carrier in the form of a pad  34  impregnated with liquid that may comprise a flavouring substance or flavourant, which is attached to the inside of the front face  33  of the main body. The pad  34  may be made of an adsorbent paper, card or the like. The pad  34  may be glued to the inside of front face  33  and may include a non porous membrane to prevent flavourant being absorbed into the front face  33 . 
         [0024]    The unglued surface  35  of the pad  34  is covered by the pull strip  32  in region  32 B, which may be lightly glued or otherwise releasably attached to one another. The region  32 B of the pull strip acts as a barrier to prevent ingress of the liquid from the pad  34  into inner frame  30  when the pull strip is configured as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . 
         [0025]    The outer face  33  of the pack  1  includes an aperture configuration  35  that may be in the form of a distinctive logo, which exposes a portion of the pull strip  32  so as to render the portion of the strip visible from outside the pack  1 . A portion of the inner frame  30  that lies beneath the aperture configuration  35  can be of a different visual appearance to the portion of the pull strip that is visible through the aperture configuration  35 , and may be of a different colour to the colour of the pull strip. 
         [0026]    The use of the pull strip is illustrated in  FIGS. 4 ,  5  &amp;  6 . When the pad  34  is impregnated with a flavourant, removal of the pull strip can be used to replenish or introduce the flavourant from the pad  34  into the cigarettes  4  within the pack  1 . To this end, the user opens lid  3  and manually removes the pull strip  32  as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . The pull strip  32  is consequently removed from adherence with flavourant-impregnated pad  34 , with the result that the flavourant can become absorbed into the inner frame  30  which can act as a wick to deliver the flavourant to the tobacco rods  4 B and become absorbed in them. Thus, if the pack contains menthol cigarettes, the pad  34  may be impregnated with a menthol containing liquid, which is used to replenish the menthol flavourant in the cigarettes, for example when the pack  1  has been opened previously and some the menthol flavourant provided during manufacture of the cigarettes has dissipated from them. Alternatively the pad may be used to introduce a different flavourant or liquid into the cigarettes, which need not necessarily have been flavoured during manufacture. 
         [0027]    The flavourant may be delivered through the inner frame  30  which acts as a wick, preferentially to different parts of the cigarettes, for example preferentially to the tobacco rods  4 B rather than the filter tips  4 A, due to the filter tips  4 A being disposed at the top of the pack, more distant from the pad  34  than the tobacco rods  4 B. Moreover, the inner frame  30  may be configured to provide separate wicking paths, not shown, to deliver the liquid from the pad  34  preferentially to different regions of the cigarette tobacco rods. Also, in a modification, a wick, not shown, may be included that is separate from the inner frame  30 . 
         [0028]    Alternatively the pad  30  may have direct access to the interior of the pack  1  and hence to the tobacco industry products rather than use the inner frame  30  as a wick. To this end the inner frame  30  may be configured to provde direct access from the pad  30  to the cigarettes  4  by being suitably shaped around the pad  30  or inclduning an aperture in the region of the pad. 
         [0029]      FIG. 5  illustrates the pack  1  with the strip  32  removed. Region  30 A of the inner frame  30  that lies behind the apertures  35  is of a different colour from the pull-strip  32 . For example, when a menthol flavourant is disposed in the pad  34 , the region  30 A may be a green colour so that, when exposed after removal of a pull strip, the colour provides a visual indication that the additional menthol has been introduced into the cigarettes within the pack  1 .  FIG. 6  illustrates the pack  1  when the lid  3  is closed following the removal of the pull strip  32  with the exposed region  30 A showing. 
         [0030]    The pack can be manufactured by folding and gluing a first blank to form the outer shell  25  comprising the main body  2  and lid  3 , with the pad  34  being pre-impreganted with the liquid flavourant and glued to the inside of the panel of the blank that forms the front face  33  of the pack  1 . A modified coupon/insert feeder may be used in an otherwise conventional hinged lid cigarette packing machine to apply the pad  34  to the inner frame. The pull strip  32  is releasably attached to the pad  34 . These parts may be attached by means of a hot melt adhesive. The cigarettes  4  are wrapped in the foil wrapper  5  and placed in the inner frame  30 , which itself is formed by folding from a second blank of porous card, and the resulting assembly of the cigarettes and inner from is inserted into the outer shell, so that the pull strip  32  is between the inner frame  30  and the outer shell  25 . Registration equipment may be employed to ensure that the pad  34  and the the pull strip  32  are accurately placed before the outer shell is formed. 
         [0031]    Alternatively, the pad  34  may be pre-assembled and glued to the inner frame blank before it reaches the packing machine. 
         [0032]    The present invention has been described above with reference to the enhancement of flavouring substances in tobacco industry products, such as menthol or other flavours. However, the present invention can also be applied to the distribution of other aromatic products, water or humectants which may be used to refresh dry and stale products without additional flavouring of the product. Thus the pad  34  may be impregnated with such other aromatic products such as spearmint or peppermint, or water or humectants rather than menthol as described above. Thus the pad can be used to accommodate any suitable substance for altering characteristics of the tobacco industry products when in the pack. 
         [0033]    Also the strip  32  which comprises a pull strip could be configured in different ways. For example, the strip could overlie the pad  34  only and have a length of cord attached thereto which could extend into the lid to allow the strip to be removed by pulling the cord. 
         [0034]    Other embodiments of the present invention will be envisaged by the skilled person without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.