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Multi-pack of product packages

Multi-pack of product packages description/claims

The present application claims the benefit of United States Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/970,230 filed on Sep. 5, 2007, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present application is directed to a multi-pack of individual product packages where the packages of the individual product packages do not contain any printed color decoration or other printed information derived from the carton blank, all such printed information and color decoration being on an outer wrapper of the multi-pack. More particularly the present invention is directed to a multi-pack of individual cartons, each containing a soap bar, the cartons having an embossed or debossed identification of the product but no printed color decoration or other printed information derived from the carton blank.

It is common to package various products in multi-packs. A multi-pack is a plurality of individually packaged products that are bundled together and held in a wrapper material, such as a thin plastic material like shrink wrap, which is sealed to hold the bundled packaged products together until the wrapper is opened by the purchaser. These multi-packs are commonly used for relatively low value products such as soap bars. These are sold in bundles of from two to twenty or more individual cartons of soap bars. In many instances the multi-packs are just bundles of the products in the same package as they are sold individually. That is each individual package is color decorated and contains all of the printed information as to the product. In addition in many cases all of this same color decoration appears on the plastic wrapper material holding the bundle together. However, this requires the printing of the carton material as well as the relatively thin wrapper material. This increases the packaging cost.

The prior art includes U.S. Application Publication 2003/0234199 which is directed to a discrete packaging technique. There is disclosed a double package where the outer film package will contain some general information as to the product and the inner individual packaged products will contain the specific information including the logos. This is particularly directed to feminine hygiene products. This technique requires the printing of colors and various information on both the outer film material and the inner individual packages of the double package. U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,140 discloses an embossed logo on a package that fits into a recess on another package. This will stabilize a stack of the products. U.S. Pat. No. 1,936,395 discloses the packaging of three soap bars. The soap bars are nested using concave/convex surfaces. The group of soap bars are bound together by a band of cellophane film. U.S. Pat. No. 3,283,992 discloses the embossing of bag film material to provide an anti-skid surface on the bag. In this way stacked bags are not likely to fall.

The present invention provides for a more environmentally friendly package by making a package that is more recyclable. Unlike in the prior art, in the present invention the individual product packages, such as paperboard cartons, will not duplicate the product information on the wrapper material nor the color decoration that is on the wrapper material. This will make the individual product packages more recyclable and will lower the cost for the individual packaged product and for the multi-pack. There is no need to put the individual product package material, like the paperboard carton material, through a printing operation. In addition the identification of the product after the removal of the wrapper will be by an embossed or a debossed product name or logo in the individual product package material that is of a size and type that it is readily discernable to a person. This embossing or debossing can be accomplished at the same time that the individual product package material is being die cut to form a carton blank. This can be incorporated into a processing step that must be accomplished in order to make the carton.

In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a multi-pack of packaged products contained within a wrapper comprising a plurality packaged products wherein the packages are devoid of any printing or any applied color derived from the carton blank, but with each package having a clearly discernable identification of the product embossed or debossed onto each package. The wrapper preferably substantially encloses the plurality of packaged products and has thereon the required product information, any printed color decoration and printed logos. The plurality of packaged products, preferably are packaged in a paperboard material with the individual product package being in the form of a carton. An identification of the packaged product is embossed or debossed into the paperboard material to give a clear indication of the product. A preferred embodiment is to have an embossed logo or product indicia on an upper surface of the individual package and a debossed logo or other product indicia on a lower surface of the individual package so that when the individual packages are stacked into a multi-pack, the embossed logo of one package will enter the debossed logo of another package to aid to stabilize the cartons in the multi-pack.

The wrapper material preferably is a thermoplastic material with the thermoplastic being either a monolayer or a laminate Useful monolayer or laminate thermoplastic materials include polyethylenes and ethylene copolymers, polypropylenes and propylene copolymers, polyethylene terephthalates, vinyl polymers and copolymers and acrylic polymers and copolymers. The laminates include thermoplastic/paper laminates. A useful thermoplastic is biaxially oriented polypropylene.

The method of packaging the plurality of products in a multi-pack comprises providing a sheet of paperboard material, in a single step forming the paperboard material into a carton blank and embossing and/or debossing the paperboard with a product identification/indicia, forming the paperboard blanks into cartons, filling each carton with a product, closing each carton, accumulating the cartons into at least one stack, providing a wrapper having thereon the required product information, any color decoration and printed logos, surrounding the at least one stack of cartons in the wrapper, and sealing the wrapper to substantially enclose the at least one stack of products. The paperboard embossing or debossing is accomplished at the same time as the sheet of paperboard material is formed into the carton blank. The blanks are formed by die cutting away edge material to form carton flaps that are folded over to fully enclose the carton. The preferred packaged product is a packaged soap bar. However, any other products that are marketed in substantially the same manner as soap bars can use the techniques of this invention to create packaging and manufacturing efficiencies.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a blank for a package of the multi-pack, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an individual package from the blank of FIG. 1, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a detailed view of section III of FIG. 2, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a multi-pack package of the individual packages of FIG. 2, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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