Cigarette Carton With Pack Separator

Abstract

A cigarette pack spacer is provided for spacing and protecting smaller than standard size cigarette packs in a standard carton. The spacer is in the form of a molded plastic insert extending along the center of the carton separating the two adjacent rows of five packs each and also the adjacent packs of each row from one another. Towards this end, the spacer includes a central panel of five contiguous sections each being cored and also rounded at its top to facilitate insertion of the spacer between the packs. At the juncture of adjacent sections is a pair of oppositely extending ribs shorter in height but also rounded at their top for ease of insertion of the spacer.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Within the recent past, long slim or thin cigarettes have become increasingly popular with the smoking public. The advent of such cigarettes has given rise to certain problems inherent in the reduced transverse dimensions of the cigarette packs. First of all, there is the matter of cartoning of these smaller packs. For marketing, shelf display and other reasons, the trade has elected to place the packs in standard size cartons containing ten packs arranged in two adjacent rows extending the length of the carton. Secondly, the individual packs are required to bear tax stamps pursuant to state laws. The stamping is generally applied by wholesalers or distributors in the respective states by stamping machines of known and conventional construction. Such machines have been designed to handle and process standard size cartons and tax stamp standard size packs. It has been found that modification of such machines or perhaps supplying supplemental machines for handling cartons containing the smaller packs would entail an intolerable capital investment. In order for the presently employed tax stamping machines to properly stamp the smaller packs, the packs must be spaced and oriented in the carton in a certain fashion otherwise the stamping elements will not properly register with the bottom of the individual packs on which the tax stamp mark is applied.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a centrally located insert for separating the packs of cigarettes in a carton and hold them therein snugly and securely against movement to not only assure the protection of the packs but also to cooperate in obtaining proper registration of the stamping elements of tax stamping machinery with the bottom of the individual packs in the carton.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description which is to be taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a carton containing cigarette packs spaced from one another and oriented in the carton by a pack spacer for registry of the packs with marking elements of tax stamping machinery and the carton being shown in an upright position with the top thereof being in an open condition;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the carton containing packs that are separated and protected by the centrally located pack spacer;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 4--4 of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the drawings, a standard size carton 10 is adapted to receive 10 smaller than standard size cigarette packs 12 arranged in two rows of five packs each and a pack spacer 14 which serves to protect the packs and separate them in predetermined fashion to permit the bottoms to be marked with tax stamps by tax stamping machinery. In accordance with one successful embodiment of the invention, the carton 10 is approximately 10 3/4 inches long, 1 13/16 inches wide and 4 inches high. The packs 12 are designed to contain the commercially known slim cigarettes which are 100 mm. long. The pack 12 possesses a length of approximately 2 inches, a width of approximately 13/16 inches and a height of approximately 4 inches. In the illustrated embodiment, the carton 10 is upright with its top open and the packs 12 are inverted to expose at the top the pack bottoms 16 to the stamping machine. As will be appreciated, the transverse dimensions of the packs 12 are not sufficient to enable the packs to take up all of the available space afforded by the carton 10.

Referring now to the spacer 14, it will be readily apparent that it spaces and positions the packs 12 not only for tax stamping purposes but also to take up the excess room in the carton 10 so that the packs 12 are snugly arranged therein. Towards this end, the spacer 14 includes a central panel 18 divided into five contiguous sections 20. Each section is cored centrally to provide openings 22. In addition, these sections 20 include a substantially straight base 24, a pair of upstanding legs 26 and 28 terminating in an arcuate or substantially hemispherical top 30 to facilitate the receipt and accommodation of the packs 12. At the juncture between adjacent sections 20 is a pair of oppositely extending and substantially normal ribs 32 and 34. Each rib is provided with a substantially straight base 26, an outer vertically extending edge 38 and an upper arcuate edge 40 which once again, facilitates the insertion of the spacer 14 between packs 12. In this connection, the spacer 14 together with packs 12 may be either automatically or manually inserted into the interior of the carton 10 together or separately and if the latter procedure is followed, it is preferred that the insert 14 be inserted into the carton 10 first with the arcuate edges thereof pointing upwardly so that the insert 14 will rest within the carton 10 and be maintained in a substantially erect vertically extending direction in view of the substantially flat and straight lower edges thereof. The carton blank can be erected around the ten packages of cigarettes in a mode of packaging well known in the art and either simultaneously therewith or thereafter the spacer 14 may be disposed between the packs in the carton. Depending upon the selected manner of assembling the packs within the carton, the spacer 14 may be oriented as shown in the drawings or upside down from that depicted therein.

The insert 14 may be formed of any one of several materials including known plastics such as polyethylene, polystyrene or the like.

Thus, it will be apparent from the foregoing that the present invention permits the utilization of standard size cartons in accommodating smaller than standard size cigarette packs and, at the same time, assures the proper spacing and disposition of such packs in these cartons through the utilization of the centrally located spacer 14 in order to facilitate the proper placement and registry of tax stamp marking as applied by existing tax stamping machinery.

Although a single somewhat preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed and described in detail herein, it should be understood that this invention is in no sense limited thereby and its scope is to be determined by that of the appended claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A cigarette carton defining an elongated enclosure which is normally adapted to receive a quantity of standard size cigarette packs arranged upright therein in two co-extensive rows with the packs in each row extending in side-by-side alignment and being paired with a corresponding pack in the other row, the packs in each pair being in side-surface-to-side-surface abutment,

said carton being dimensioned so as to encircle snugly said quantity of standard size packages when received in said carton, in combination with,

an equal quantity of smaller than standard size cigarette packs received in said carton in predetermined positionings therein,

and means for holding said smaller than standard size cigarette packs snugly and in spaced apart relation within said carton and to prevent longitudinal lateral movement of said smaller than standard size packs from said positionings, said means including a centrally located molded plastic spacer removably received in said carton and comprising,

a relatively thin panel extending substantially lengthwise of the carton and disposed between the adjacent rows of packs and comprised of five sections, each of the sections having a top and bottom and the tops being arcuate to facilitate the relative insertion of the spacer between the rows of packs,

laterally extending ribs extending integrally from opposed sides of said panel at the juncture of each section for disposition between adjacent packs of each row whereby the packs are spaced from each other longitudinally by the ribs to hold such packs longitudinally in said predetermined positionings with said central panel spacing the packs of each row outwardly against the surfaces of the carton to complete the predetermined positionings of said packs within the carton,

and means on each of said section and ribs for facilitating the insertion of the spacer between the packs.

2. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein each of the sections is cored.

3. The invention in accordance with claim 3 wherein each of the ribs has a top and bottom and the tops of the ribs being arcuate to facilitate relative insertion of the ribs between the packs of each row.