WO1999030972A1 - Foldable container with variable volume - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a foldable container with variable volume which has die-formed folds in a preferably diagonal direction on the sides of the container and which are intended to fold the container. Once folded, the container has a better tightness and a volume reduction of the container is obtained.

Description

 DOUBLE VARIABLE VOLUME CONTAINER

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

TECHNICAL SECTOR: PACKAGING

The present invention, as expressed in the statement of this specification, refers to a package that varies in volume as it folds, package that has been conceived and made in order to obtain significant advantages over those that already exist in the market .

The package is designed to significantly reduce the volume of waste while better conditioning the volume available in a particular place, for example, a container that is reduced in height can be positioned in more places in a refrigerator.

On the other hand, when folding, a strangulation of the cross-section is achieved, which ends with a more or less tight seal, thus providing better preservation of the contents of the container.

PREVIOUS STATE OF THE TECHNIQUE

There are many types of packaging on the market. Some of them, especially in plastic, come with the possibility of drastically reducing them in volume, going to occupy a small volume of waste at once. This package has the limitation that the volume reduction is not gradual, being carried out only when the entire product has been used up. Another type of container is known, which bases its volume reduction on taking off tabs located at the bases adopting a flat symmetry. The drawback of this type is that in addition to being relatively difficult to detach the eyelashes, the volume reduction continues to be drastically and, as long as the content has not been consumed, the package remains open.

Other packages that are known in the market, have a cap to achieve the closure of the container, but do not offer the possibility of reducing the volume either gradually or drastically.

There are in another alternative market, the boxes, some containers that are manufactured to be transported folded with open bases. This system has the disadvantage that it is necessary to close the two bases to pack the contents.

The rest of the containers, although they are transported more or less folded, once they pass to the consumer it is difficult to reduce them in volume, and, in any case, there are no known packages in which the volume reduction is gradual.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The package object of the invention is designed to adapt its volume to its temporary use needs. This is achieved thanks to the folding that is practiced on the inclined die of the lateral faces. By performing said folding, we also achieve a quasi-static closure that prevents accidental spillage of the contents, while providing a greater degree of preservation.

The gradual decrease of the volume of the container consists in reducing the height or length of the container with a simple twist, thus depleting one of the partial heights or lengths to which we will later refer. With the indicated property it is possible to minimize the volume of the waste and in a very simple and remarkably practical way.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1.- Vertical axis container, with three partial heights, full of content, with the top of known commercial design. Figure 2.- Package of three partial heights in the bending phase of one of them.

Figure 3.- Package of three partial heights completely folded. Figure 4.- Container of a single partial height that is presented with a folding characterized by a change of direction of the lateral face. Figure 5.- Container of a single partial height, open and ready to be folded.

DESCRIPTION OF TWO PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Form 1 ^a : On this occasion we will make a folded container of variable volume of three partial heights with the upper part of known commercial design, as shown in figures 1, 2 and 3.

In effect, there are four lines (3) that limit horizontal planes. The upper and lower correspond to the bases, and the two intermediate ones they live in the container in three stacked cubic volumes, as can be seen in the mentioned figures.

The upper part of the package, designated with the number (2) is of commercial design and constitutes only one way of presenting the invention. On the other hand, the folds marked with the number (1) are the pure essence of the invention, since on these the container is folded, which comes to adopt the position of figure 3.

It was also intended to provide figure 2 to show how the package looks as it is folded.

Form 2 ^a : The folds, preferably diagonal, that are drawn on the side faces of the container can be presented in turn folded, to constitute the closure of the container. This is the case of figure 4 in which a container is shown whose height (5) is just half of what it would be with the container open, and the folds (1) appear divided, half in a vertical plane and the another half in a horizontal plane that constitutes in this case the upper closure of the container.

Once opened, the package adopts the position of figure 5 and is perfectly prepared to be folded.

COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION FORM

The susceptibility of industrial use part of the market itself. With the proposed design it is possible to pack solids of cubic construction (A television, a washing machine, etc.), stacked cubic (Refrigerators, freezers, etc.), all types of liquids (milk, juice, water, etc.) and all kinds of bulk products, especially those of small grain. And all these packaging, would result in an important comfort in the displacements (since the container would be folded, thus occupying a significantly lower volume), in an important Environmental saving (based on the reduction of garbage bags that is deduced from the smaller volume occupied by waste).

From the economic point of view, it is also an improvement, since it can be transported with one of its pre-manufactured bases, which saves the recipient, who only has to introduce the product through the open base and close the latter. .

From the point of view of Marketing it also represents an advance, since the final consumer of the package can store it more comfortably in cases in which he is interested in keeping the container to make a move or exchange the product. On the other hand, it can be a Marketing strategy to use folded heights to hide the result of an advertising or other similar promotion.

If for a moment we stop to think about the enormous amount of containers of this type that could replace those currently consumed in the world, we can make a first approximation of the volume of waste referred to above, and it would help us understand the susceptibility of industrial application that the container has, considering especially, that the costs of adaptation of the industry for the serial production of this bending technique, would not be excessive, and much less excessive if we consider the enormous amount of urban waste volume which would cease to be produced by storing the same waste in much less volume.

Claims

1. Folded container of variable volume characterized by reducing its volume thanks to an inclined, preferably diagonal fold (1) made in the same direction on the side faces of each of the stacked cubes constituting the container. 2. The heights or partial lengths are those between the horizontal planes limited by two consecutive lines (3) (in a horizontal container it would be the length between two consecutive vertical planes). 3. The folding mode consists of a turn of the upper part (2). While the planes limited by the lines (3) are approaching each other due to the rotation, the fold (1) is approaching the two triangular planes that it divides, and confusing them in a single plane that is gradually moving to a horizontal position. 4. The superposition of all the horizontal planes that are formed once the partial height considered is folded, forms a closure that gives a certain tightness to the contents of the container.