Rigid container for tobacco articles with rounded or beveled transverse and longitudinal edges

Abstract

A rigid, substantially parallelepiped-shaped container for tobacco articles, having two, respectively top and bottom, end walls (7, 8); a lateral surface (6) bounded by the end walls (7, 8) and defined by two, respectively front and rear, major lateral walls (10, 11), and by two minor lateral walls (9); four longitudinal edges (13), each defined between a major lateral wall (10; 11) and a minor lateral wall (9); and eight transverse edges (14), each defined between an end wall (7; 8) and a lateral wall (9; 10; 11); the two transverse edges (14) of the front wall (10) and the two longitudinal edges (13) of the rear wall (11) are nonsquare edges, while the other transverse and longitudinal edges (14, 13) are sharp square edges.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a rigid container for tobacco articles. BACKGROUND ART [0002] In the following description, reference is made, purely by way of a non-limiting example and for the sake of brevity, to rigid containers defined by packets of cigarettes. [0003] Rigid hinged-lid packets of cigarettes are normally in the form of a rectangular-section parallelepiped, and comprise two major lateral walls defined by a front wall and a rear wall; and two minor lateral walls, each connected to both the major lateral walls at respective sharp square longitudinal edges. [0004] Rigid packets of the above type, i.e. in the form of a rectangular-section parallelepiped, have several drawbacks by being unanatomical in shape, and by causing rapid wear of any clothing fabrics with which they come into contact. [0005] Rigid, rectangular-section parallelepiped packets also have the drawback of being fairly rigid at the minor lateral walls and in the square longitudi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] It is an object of the present invention to provide a rigid hinged-lid packet of cigarettes, designed to eliminate the aforementioned drawbacks.

Problems solved by technology

Rigid packets of the above type, i.e. in the form of a rectangular-section parallelepiped, have several drawbacks by being unanatomical in shape, and by causing rapid wear of any clothing fabrics with which they come into contact.

Rigid, rectangular-section parallelepiped packets also have the drawback of being fairly rigid at the minor lateral walls and in the square longitudinal edge regions, but less so at the major lateral walls, which tend to deform inwards when a transparent cellophane overwrapping is applied and shrunk (by the application of heat) about the packet.

Inward deformation of the major lateral walls, caused by the inward pressure exerted by the transparent overwrapping on the packet, compresses and maintains a compressed configuration of the cigarettes inside the packet, so that the first cigarette is particularly difficult to extract.

Moreover, deformation of the major lateral walls, and particularly the rear lateral wall, deforms the hinge joining the lid to the bottom shell, so that the lid is hard to open unless the whole transparent overwrapping is removed (normally torn off) from the packet.

Packets with beveled or rounded edges of the above type, however, have the further drawback of the lid failing to close the cup-shaped bottom container properly, on account of the difficulty in forming two coincident rounded or beveled edges, and, not being particularly anatomical in shape, are relatively awkward to handle.

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