Display and dispensing carton

Abstract

 A display and dispensing carton 10 formed of a cut and erected blank comprises front 12, rear, side 16 and end 18 panels. A removable portion 24 at the lower end of the front panel is delimited from the rest of the front panel by a line of perforations 26, and is attached on either side to respective side tabs 28 formed of the side panels and similarly delimited therefrom by a line of weakness 26, 30. The side tabs end in outs 32, facilitating severance of the side tabs.
The removable portion is removed from the carton to give access to the contents. The outside surface of the carton may carry advertising or other indicia.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a display carton for packaging a number of individual packs or articles, which may be used for display at the point of sale and from which the packs or articles contained therein can be dispensed.

[0002] Cartons for containing a number of individual packs are commonly used for products such as cigarettes. Such cartons may be used, if desired, for display at the point of sale, but the packs inside can only be removed by opening the carton in the conventional manner, either at one end or along the top, whereafter the carton becomes a waste item and is unsuitable for display purposes.

[0003] Specially designed and constructed dispensers for such packs may provide effective point of sale advertising material and containers for the individual packs, but have the disadvantage that, before use, they must be filled with individual packs, which is a tedious process. Moreover, the packs themselves will frequently be taken from cartons which are then thrown away.

[0004] The present invention avoids these various difficulties and disadvantages by providing a display and dispensing carton formed of a cut and erected blank providing panels which in dispensing use constitute front, rear, side and end panels, wherein a portion extending wholly across one panel which constitutes the front panel and at one end thereof is delimited from the remainder of the front panel by a line of weakness and is attached on either side to respective side tabs formed of part of the adjacent panels constituting side panels and similarly delimited therefrom by lines of weakness, whereby the removable portion and the two attached side tabs can be separated or completely removed from the carton by severance along the line of weakness.

[0005] The carton according to the invention serves both as a point of sale advertising item and an efficient dispenser of individual packs or articles which may be removed one or two at a time from the dispenser. The carton may be dimensioned so that it may be assembled from a blank and filled on conventional packaging equipment currently used for packing individual packs in cartons. This eliminates the need for expensive modifications of existing packaging equipment.

[0006] The invention provides a rigid carton that can be mounted for display purposes, either on a surface, on a suitable mount or rack, or by attachment to a wall. For the latter purpose, attachment means may be provided on the carton, for example in the form of adhesive bands or hanging tabs. For many end uses the carton will preferably be elongated in the direction orthogonal to its end panels, and this is especially true where conventional cartons for the same goods are so shaped. It is then preferred that the same goods are so shaped. It is then preferred that the carton should be displayed with this direction of elongation generally vertical.

[0007] The invention is especially suitable for use with packs of cigarettes and like articles and may be dimensioned to contain the usual number of such packs in the disposition usual in the trade. It has particular advantage in certain countries where circumstances for the tobacco industry are unusual. For example, the provision of a simple carton which can be hung on a plain wall and thereafter serve as a dispenser is of especial interest in developing countries where retail outlets may have little in the way of shop fittings. The display cartons are also of value in countries where restrictions are placed on advertising and the use of a extraneous media for this purpose.

[0008] In the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of example only, like reference numerals indicate corresponding items in the respective embodiments.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one form of display carton according to the invention, being shown closed at 1A, and with the removal portion completely removed at 1B;

Fig. 2 is a rear view of the carton shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows a blank used in the construction of the carton of Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a second form of carton according to the invention, shown closed at 4A and open at 4B;

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the carton of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 shows a blank used in the construction of the carton of Figs. 4 and 5.

[0009] The display carton 10 shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is formed from the blank shown in Fig. 3. This has narrow front and rear panels 12 and 14, side panels 16, end panels 18 and, at the end which in a vertical display position is uppermost, conventional tabs 20 for securing the carton in the erected condition. A conventional closure tab 22 extends along the one long edge of the side panels which is free in the blank.

[0010] In accordance with the invention, at the end of the carton which is lowermost in the display position, a portion 24 of the front panel 12 is defined by a line of perforations or other line of weakness 26, which extends into the side panels 16 to define side tabs 28. Similar line of perforations or weakness 30 define the opposite side of the side tabs 28. The remove ends of the side tabs 28 are terminated by cut-outs 32, which are semi-circular in this example, where material is completely stamped out when the blank is cut. An additional securing tab 34 is provided at the adjacent end of the side panel 16 and serves to maintain the structural integrity of the carton after removal of the portion 24. Securing tab 36 at the same end of the blank or carton is cut away to a greater extent than the corresponding securing tabs 20 at the other end, in order to accommodate the novel configuration at this end.

[0011] The carton may be provided with means for securing it to a wall, preferably by the rear panel 14. These means may, for example, consist of one or more strips of adhesive, such as lengths of double sided adhesive tape, the free face of which may be protected before use by lengths of release material. Alternatively, the rear panel 14 can be provided with a hanging tab 42. The hanging tab 42 is defined by a line 44 of perforations or weakness and a terminal cut out 46. A score line 48 may be provided along the base of the tab 42, which is on the top edge of a rear face 14 of the carton, to facilitate folding, and a central hole 50 may be wholly or partially cut out to enable the tab to be hung from a hook or nail. In Fig. 1B, the hanging tab is shown folded back, ready for use. It is preferable that at least 1 cm should be left between either side of the hanging tab 42 and the edges of the panel in order to preserve the strength of the panel.

[0012] In use, a blank as shown in Fig. 3 can be erected and filled with individual packets by conventional packaging machinery. In a preferred application of the invention, the individual packs are conventional hard packs of cigarettes, which are disposed in the filled pack in the same way as in conventional cartons of the same size, notably ten packs per carton, usually of twenty cigarettes each, disposed in two layers of five packs each. An alternative shape of elongated carton to contain ten packs in a single array is less preferred.

[0013] The carton can be stored and transported in the conventional manner using conventional equipment, but, when it reaches the point of sale, it can be used for display and dispensing purposes, preferably by being supported or suspended in a vertical orientation with the portion 24 at the bottom. Insertion of a fingers or thumbs into the cut-outs 32 then enable the side tabs 28 and portion 24 to be separated from the carton, as shown in Fig. 1B. Individual packs can then be removed one or two at a time through the opening.

[0014] The carton shown in Figs. 4 and 5, which is formed from a blank as shown in Fig. 6, employs the same principles as the first embodiment but is intended for use in a different horizontal orientation wherein the individual packs are displayed lengthwise when the carton is open rather than endwise as in the first embodiment.

[0015] In Figs. 4 to 6 the front, rear and side panels are indicated by the same numerals as the panels occupying the same orientations in Figs. 1 to 3, so that the front and rear panels 12 and 14 are wide panels in this case, and the side panels 16 are narrow. The removable portion 24 is constituted by one end of a wide panel which appears as the front panel 12, while the side tabs 28 are formed in the narrow panels which now constitute the side panels 16. One of these panels is at the opposite side of the blank from the free edge of the wide panel that bears the closure tab 22, and so is structurally separated from the removable portion 24. An additional securing tab 40 is provided at the edge of the portion 24, which when the carton is erected is secured to the isolated side tab 28 to form the portion 24 and both side tabs 28 into a single removable entity. In this case it is not necessary for the tab to be provided at the lower edge of the removable portion 24, this edge being defined by a free edge of the front panel 12 and not by a line of perforation or weakness. This means that the lower edge of the side tabs 28 is defined by two separate lines of weakness 30. The absence of securing tab corresponding to the tab 34 in Fig. 3 also enables both ends of the blank to be provided with conventionally shaped securing tabs 20.

[0016] The carton shown in Figs. 4 and 5 can be provided with adhesive suspension means as in the case of Figs. 1 and 2. In this case adhesive strips could be applied to the rear face 14. An alternative arrangement is shown in the drawings, however, where a hanging tab 42 is defined by a line 44 of perforation or weakness and a terminal cut out 46. A score line 48 may be provided along the base of the tab 42 to facilitate folding, and a central hole 50 may be cut out, wholly or partially, to make the hanging tab easily secured to a hook or nail.

[0017] In this embodiment, the score line 48 on the base of the tab 42 does not coincide with the top edge of the rear face 14 of the carton, and the tab does not project above top of the carton when folded back and in use.

[0018] This alternative form of blank and carton are employed in an analogous manner to that described in relation to Figs. 1 and 3. With both embodiments, the carton may be displayed by standing on a level surface or on a conventional rack or other simple mounting, or may be suspended from a wall as described. When made of appropriate card or carton material, the structure described has ample integrity and will support packs remaining in it without sagging.

[0019] The outer face of the panel may be printed with advertising material in the conventional manner, although the orientation of some or all of such material may be altered to take account of the fact that the carton may be displayed in a vertical orientation. Nevertheless, although the vertical is the preferred orientation for cartons according to the invention when used for display and dispensing purposes, the cartons can be employed in other orientations, and it will be appreciated that references to front, rear, top, bottom and other spatially defined items may be to some extent be in interchangeable without compromising the principles of the invention.

Claims

1. A display and dispensing carton (10) formed of a cut and erected blank providing panels which in dispensing use constitute front (12), rear (14), side (16) and end (18) panels, wherein a portion (24) extending wholly across one panel which constitutes the front panel and at one end thereof is delimited from the remainder of the front panel by a line of weakness (26) and is attached on either side to respective side tabs formed of part of the adjacent panels constituting side panels and (28) similarly delimited therefrom by lines of weakness (26, 30), whereby the removable portion and the two attached side tabs can be separated or completely removed from the carton by severance along the lines of weakness.

2. A carton (10) according to claim 1 wherein each side tab (28) terminates at its end remote from the removable portion (24) of the front panel (12) in a cut-out (36) where material is completely removed from the respective side panel (16), whereby severance of the side tabs from the side panels is facilitated.

3. A carton (10) according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the removable portion (24) of the front panel (12) is integral with the two side tabs (28) formed from respective side panels (16).

4. A carton (10) according to claim 3 wherein one side panel (16) having in the blank a free long edge finished with a securing tab (22) extending therealong has additionally a securing tab (34) at its short free edge adjacent to the said removable portion (24) whereby the said one side panel is secured to the corresponding end panel (18) in the erected carton.

5. A carton (10) according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the panel (12) of the blank which constitutes the said front panel has three free edges, the removable portion (24) being integral with a side tab (28) formed in the side panel (16) which is contiguous in the blank and being provided at its opposite edge with a securing tab (40), and the other side tab (28) being structurally isolated in the blank but secured to the last-mentioned securing tab (40) in the erected carton.

6. A carton (10) according to any preceding claim wherein a hanging tab (42) is formed of a portion of the rear panel (14).

7. A carton (10) according to claim 6 in which the hanging tab (42) is defined by a line of weakness (44) extending from the upper edge of the rear panel.

8. A carton (10) according to any preceding claim which is elongated in the direction orthogonal to the end panels (18) and wherein the outer face of at least one of the front (12) and side (16) panels bears indicia orientated to be read when the carton is disposed with its elongated direction generally vertical.

9. A carton (10) according to any preceding claim which contains or is adapted to contain a regular number of individual packs of goods disposed side by side to fill the carton, the individual packs having dimensions such that they can be individually dispensed through the opening provided by separation or removal of the said removable portion (24).

10. A carton (10) according to claim 9 which is dimensioned overall to contain ten conventional packs of cigarettes disposed in two layers of five packs each.

11. A blank for use in the production of a carton (10) according to any preceding claim.

Drawing