WO2006096124A1

WO2006096124A1 - Packaging device for packing and exposing one or more plants

Info

Publication number: WO2006096124A1
Application number: PCT/SE2006/000306
Authority: WO
Inventors: Johan Wihlborg
Original assignee: Johan Wihlborg
Priority date: 2005-03-09
Filing date: 2006-03-09
Publication date: 2006-09-14
Also published as: SE527478C2; SE0500524L

Abstract

A packaging device (1) for packing and exposing at least one decorative plant (2) such as e.g. a bunch of flowers or a similar thing/similar things includes a package (6) enclosing the plant and intended to protect the plant until it is unpacked. The package is made from substan- tially a continuous sheet (3) of cardboard, carton or a similar material that in its surface has a plurality of different embossed lines or creases (5.1 - 5.9) for dividing and/or folding the sheet, hi/after unpacking the plant the package can be divided along embossed lines (5.2) to form sub¬ stantially two separate parts, an outer box (7) and an inner box (8) arranged so that the inner box can be placed in the outer box. The inner box can then constitute a flowerpot for receiving the lower portion and root system of the plant and the outer box (7) a decorative enclosure (10) and/or a so called decorative pot or the boxes (7, 8) can together form a vase.

Description

PACKAGING DEVICE FOR PACKING AND EXPOSING ONE OR MORE PLANTS RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority and benefit from Swedish patent application No. 0500524- 4, filed March 9, 2005, the entire teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a packaging device for packing and exposing at least one or more plants such as plants for decorative purposes. BACKGROUND

When purchasing plants, such as plants having flowers, including or not including a flowerpot and bunches of flowers and similar things, today a package is used for storing the plant until it is unpacked. The package is then discarded and will then take space of the garbage. If a person buys a flower planted in a flowerpot to hand it over as a gift the person may think that she/he also should simultaneously give an outer decorative flowerpot or a vase to obtain an attractive look of the gift, hi addition, often a beautiful gift card is purchased to congratulate the receiver of the gift. All these things often cost more money than the estimated attraction value of the gift, particularly if the outer decorative flowerpot is put aside since it is not liked by the receiver. As time goes on many such outer decorative flowerpots can be put aside.

SUMMARY

A purpose of the present invention is to solve the problems related to the above mentioned devices.

Generally, a packaging device can include a package in which one or more plants are packed and which can be used to both produce an outer enclosure that can be made in a decorative way or include a decoration, such as an outer decorative flowerpot, and an inner part for receiving said one or more plants, for example in the same way as a vase or an inner flowerpot in which said one or more plants can be received or planted.

Generally, such a packaging device can be a simple, non-costly and attractive solution to the problems mentioned above.

A packaging device for packing and exposing at least one or more plants can include a package that encloses said one or more plants and is formed from a continuous sheet of a suitable material by folding it. In the surface of the sheet a plurality of embossed lines or creases for dividing and folding the sheet are provided. The embossed lines are made e.g. by pressing, embossing, punching, perforating completely or partly through the sheet. After unpacking said one or more plants the sheet can be divided along some of the embossed lines to form two parts, a separate outer box and a separate inner box so that the inner box forms a flowerpot and the outer box forms a decorative enclosure or a so called outer decorative flowerpot or so that the boxes together form a vase.

The sheet can have flaps at its edges that match holes that are made at embossed lines or at other places in the sheet. In the folding operation a coupling of the edges to each other is achieved by tucking flaps into the holes in order to hold the package together for said one or more plants and thereby to hold the later on formed boxes to each other. The enclosing package containing said one or more plants can have a tapering body or main part which has flat or possibly arched side surfaces and one end of which has a width, taken across the body, that is larger than the width of the other end thereof. The body has to be only weakly tapering or generally only so much tapering that placing the inner box in the outer box is allowed. The body can also have an elongated shape.

The embossed lines along which the package is divided to form the outer box and the inner box can extend across the body, at the middle part thereof. Said other end can form the bottom part of the inner box and the first end the bottom part of the outer box when the inner box is placed -in the outer box and the two boxes rests on a support, e.g. a table or a window sill. The body can, in a cross-sectional view, have the shape of a closed polygon and then particularly a substantially regular enclosed polygon, e.g. a rectangular, circular, quadratic polygon or a hexagon or octagon, or have an elliptic shape or similar, or generally any shape that allows the inner box to be placed in the outer box. hi one embodiment the outer box and the inner box can, when the inner box is placed in the outer box, together have an upper portion at which edges having flaps are provided which flaps can be folded in and over the edges, from for example the outer box in and down into the inner box, the boxes thereby being fixed as to their positions at each other. Li order to allow water to be introduced in the inner box, without leaking too much, the inner surface thereof can have a water-proof material, i.e. a material that is non-permeable to liquids, such as e.g. a polymer film, aluminium foil or a layer that is bonded adhesively or attached only at points, laminated or in a similar way to the inner surface of the inner box.

Flaps can be provided to form a carrying handle to carry the package before its opened to unpack said one or more plants. Other flaps can be used to form a bottom of the package when it encloses said one or more plants. These flaps can also form a bottom of the inner box for the unpacked one or more plants.

To produce an attractive look of said one or more plants when it is/they are placed such as planted in the inner box, the outer box or the outer decorative flowerpot, i.e. the outer surface of the combined box, can be made as a decorative enclosure and for example be provided with a message such as e.g. a congratulation, a tribute, a jocular text, a text worth considering, a serious text, a picture or similar devices.

In a possible embodiment, the body can include four sides which are folded in an angle of substantially 90° in relation to each other, as seen in a cross-sectional view, and the width of which across the body for example can be at least three times smaller than a distance between the ends of the body or of the sides. The sheet can have a suitable thickness, such as e.g. between 1 mm and 4 mm, to provide a good stability of the package and boxes.

Advantages of the packaging device include that an outer box and an inner box or vase can be achieved by dividing the very package itself. This can save money for a user since neither a flowerpot, a decorative enclosing pot, a vase or a decorative enclosure or a separate congratulation/celebration card have to be purchased.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the methods, processes, instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIP TION OF THE DRAWINGS

While the novel features of the invention are set forth with particularly in the appended claims, a complete understanding of the invention, both as to organization and content, and of the above and other features thereof may be gained from and the invention will be better appreciated from a consideration of the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments presented hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a package containing a decorative plant,

- Fig. 2 is a view from the front of a flat sheet provided to form, by folding, the package illustrated in Fig. 1, and

- Fig. 3 is a perspective view of an inner box placed in an outer box, the boxes formed by dividing the package illustrated in Fig. 1 and the decorative plant placed such as planted in the inner box.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The packaging device 1 shown in Fig. 1 is intended for one or more decorative plants 2, such as one or more living plants or portions thereof, in particular a simple "flower" or bunch of flowers, i.e. one or more cut flowers, or a pot-plant, i.e. a whole plant including the root. The packaging device 1 includes a package 6 that is made as an enclosure enclosing said one or more decorative plants. The package 6 includes a main part 11, also called a body, having side surfaces 25, which as shown can be flat and can be provided in the number of four, but it is obvious to a person skilled in the art that the number of side surfaces of a package of the illustrated kind generally can equally well have any suitable value larger than two. The main part can generally be tapering, in an upward or downward direction and then it can have the shape of the frustum of a con or of a pyramid having a peak angle that for example can be relatively small, e.g. between 1 and 10°.

The body can as shown be elongated but also low packages are conceivable for plants of special kinds such as some cactuses. In any case the body has a longitudinal axis extending centrally inside it from the bottom of the package with which the package suitably can rest on a support, up to the upper portion thereof. The first end 12 of the body at the upper part of the package has a width 17 in a cross direction, i.e. perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the main part, which in a preferred case is larger than the width 28 of the other end 13 thereof at the bottom of the package. Even though the opposite relation is conceivable, though it is not illustrated in the drawings, i.e. that the width at the upper part is smaller than the width at the bottom. One or more embossed lines 5.1, 5.2 for dividing or separating an upper part of the body 11 from a lower part of the body extend substantially across the body 11 and generally at the middle portion 14 of the body over the sides 25. As shown, for example two parallel embossed lines can be provided. After dividing along such embossed lines 5.2, the upper part of the main part forms an outer box 7 and the lower part an inner box 8, see Fig. 3. Then the ending portion, which as shown is a surface extending in a cross direction and forms the bottom of the package, forms at the other, lower end 13 of the body 11 the bottom portion 15 of the inner box 8 and the ending part of the body at the first end 12 forms the bottom part 16 of the outer box 7.

As appears from Fig. 2 the package 6 is produced from a continuous sheet 3 of a suitable material, for example cardboard, carton or a similar material, the surface of which has a multitude of embossed lines for dividing and folding the sheet 3. The side surfaces 25 all have, in the shown embodiment, the shape of a symmetric trapeze having a height, i.e. a distance between the parallel sides at the upper end lower portions of the package, that as shown for example can be significantly larger than each of these parallel sides but, as has been mentioned above, this is not necessary. The side surfaces all have the same shape and this shape can be seen as being the lower portion of an isosceles triangle which has a peak angle that for example can be relatively small, e.g. between 1 and 10°. The side surfaces are arranged having their oblique sides connected to each other along embossed lines 5.3 except two outer, free sides 19.1, 19.2 and form a main part 29 of the sheet 3 having a fanlike shape.

The fanlike main part 29 has at the two free sides 19.1, 19.2 flaps 18.1, 18.2, two at each free side, one of which is arranged at each side of the middle embossed line/lines 5.1, 5.2. They connect to a corresponding side surface 25 at embossed lines 5.4, 5.5. The flaps 18.1 at one 19.1 of the free sides are intended to cooperate with and fit into holes 20 formed in the side surface 25 at the flaps 18.2 at the other free side 19.2. When folding the sheet 3 to form the package 6 thereby an interconnection of the free sides 19.1, 19.2 can be achieved by tucking each of the flaps 18.1 into the corresponding hole 20 at the opposite free side 19.2.

Furthermore, flaps 18.3 can as shown be provided at the upper side or edge 19.3 of for example two of the side surfaces 25 which connect to the respective side surface at embossed lines 5.6 and are made to include holes 23 to form, after the folding of the sheet, the lid 30 of the package and a carrying handle 31 for the package 6, see Fig. 1. Folding lines 5,7 can then be provided at the portion that forms the carrying handle 31. At the low side 19.4 of one or more side surfaces 25 flaps 18.4, 18.5 can be provided for forming, after folding the sheet, the bottom part 15 of the package. The flaps 18.4, 18.5 connect to the corresponding side surface 25 along embossed lines 5.8 and one of the flaps has an outer portion 32 that can be folded in along an embossed line 5.9.

The central, embossed line/lines 5.1, 5.2 extending in a cross direction is/are as shown advantageously parallel to the parallel sides 19.3, 19.4 of the trapeze shape of the side surfaces 25. If two such parallel embossed lines are provided short embossed lines 5.7 can be provided that extend obliquely between the parallel embossed lines and extend as shown for example from the points where the upper one 5.1 of the parallel embossed lines intersects the oblique lines of the parallel trapeze shape of the side surfaces 25. The area between these short embossed lines can after dividing the package 6 including a separating operation along the lower one 5.2 of the parallel embossed lines form flaps 18.5 that project from the formed upper part, i.e. the outer box 7. Of course, if desired, these flaps can instead be made to project from the inner box 8 by making the short embossed lines extend from the points where the lower one 5.2 of the parallel embossed lines intersects the oblique sides of the trapeze shape of the side surfaces 25, and dividing the package along the upper one 5.1 of the parallel embossed lines.

As has been mentioned above and as can also be seen in Fig. 3 the package 6 can be divided into two parts along one of the embossed lines 5.1, 5.2, according to the drawings along the lower one thereof, to form an outer box 7 and an inner box 8. The inner box can then be placed inside the outer box, provided that the Hd 30 including the carrying handle 31 is removed or is pressed into the outer box 7, so that the inner box then will form for example a flowerpot or a vase 9 for said one or more decorative plants 2 and the outer box will then form a decorative enclosure 10. Thus, the outer box 7 encloses the inner box 8 and the boxes have then together an upper portion 21 where the flaps 18.5 from the outer box 7 are folded in and down into the inner box 8. The inner box 8 has an interior surface 22 on which a material 20 non-permeable to liquids is advantageously provided. The flaps 18.4 at the other lower end 13 of the package 6 are folded to form the bottom portion 15 of the package 6 and hence a bottom 24 of the flowerpot or the vase 9 so that the boxes 7, 8 can rest on a support 26.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, it is realized that numerous additional advantages, modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details, representative devices and illustrated examples shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. It is therefore to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within a true spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A packaging device for packing and exposing one or more plants, characterized in that the packaging device includes a package enclosing said one or more plants to protect said one or more plants, until it is/they are unpacked, the package being made from substantially a folded continuous sheet that in its surface has a plurality of embossed lines for dividing and/or folding the sheet, the sheet being provided with embossed lines arranged so that at/after unpacking said one or more plants the package can be divided along these embossed lines to form at least two separate parts including at least one separate outer box and at least one separate inner box, the sheet including the embossed lines thereof being arranged so that the inner box can be placed in the outer box and form a flowerpot or a vase for said one or more plants and the outer box can form a decorative enclosure and/or a so called outer decorative pot enclosing the inner box.

2. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the sheet at one edge thereof has at least one flap that fits in at least one hole in the sheet at an opposite edge to form, after folding the sheet, an interconnection of the edges with each other by tucking said at least one flap into the hole for forming the package and thereby also the outer and inner boxes.

3. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the package includes a body have side surfaces, the first end of which has a width across a longitudinal axis of the body that is larger than the width at its second end, the embossed lines for the dividing the package for forming the outer box and the inner box extending substantially across the body and substantially at the middle portion thereof over the side surfaces.

4. A packaging device according to claim 3, characterized in that the bottom portion of the inner box is formed at said second end and the bottom portion of the outer box is formed at said first end.

5. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that a body of the package, at substantially its middle portion, seen in a sectional view taken across the body, has a shape of a closed polygon, in particularly a substantially regular closed polygon, in particularly a rectangular, circular, quadratic, hexagon or octagon shape or an elliptic shape or a similar shape.

6. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the outer box and the inner box together have, when the inner box is placed in the outer box, an upper portion, a first one of the boxes at its edge that is located at the upper portion having at least one flap for folding in and over at least of one of the edges of the other one of the boxes, preferably from the outer box in and down into the inner box, the inner and outer boxes thereby being fixed in their positions at each other at least to some extent.

7. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the inner box that forms the very flowerpot has an interior side, that has a layer of a material non-permeable to liquids, in particular a polymer film, aluminium foil, that is bonded adhesively or attached at points only, laminated or in a similar way.

8. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the flaps is made as at least one carrying handle to carry the package before it is opened for unpacking said one or more plants.

9. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized by at least one flap at a lower end of the package that is folded to form a bottom of the package and to thereby form a bottom of the inner box.

10. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the decorative enclosure of the decorative part is formed by the outer box having a message such as a congratulation, a tribute, a jocular text, a text worth considering, a serious text, a picture or a similar device, to form together with said one or more plants an attractive look.

11. A packaging device according to claim 1 , characterized in that the package includes a body having four side surfaces that are folded in an angle of substantially 90° in relation to each other seen in a sectional view taken across the body.

12. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the package includes a body having side surfaces, the width of which across the body, in particular at all places along the body, is at least three times smaller than the distance between ends of the side surfaces.

13. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the sheet has a thickness of between 1 and 4 mm to achieve stability of the package and of the inner and outer boxes formed thereby.

14. A packaging device according to claim 1, characterized in that the embossed lines are made by pressing, punching, perforating completely or partly through the sheet.