Closure Device and Packaging Comprising a Closure Device

Abstract

A closure device for attaching to a packaging container, by which the container is closable but cannot be opened by children once closed. The closure device is made of at least 70% paper-based material and includes a tab receptacle, a receiving space and an insertion tab with a hook element. To close the device, the insertion tab is inserted in the receiving space of the tab receptacle and a free end of the hook element lockingly engages with an edge of the space. To open the closure device, the insertion tab is withdrawn from the receiving space while applying pressure to the hook element to release locking. For this purpose, an opening is formed in a wall of the tab receptacle through which pressure is applied. An item of packaging composed of the packaging container, includes a removal opening and the closure device.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a closure device for attaching to a packaging container, the packaging container being closable by the attached closure device such that it can be reclosed but cannot be opened by children, as well as to a packaging having a closure device of this type.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Legal requirements stipulate that the packaging of certain household chemicals must be equipped with child-resistant closures. This includes, for example, the outer packaging of washing and cleaning products, especially when they are offered as portion packs in the form of so-called pouches, pods, disks or caps.

Different types of child-resistant closures are already known for plastics material packaging. Often, opening these closures requires a combination of multiple movements, for example a simultaneous pressing and turning movement, or a sequence of a plurality of opening steps carried out one after the other. Such complex movement patterns are generally not possible for children in the age groups that require special protection. At the same time, opening such a closure is usually possible for an adult without great difficulty.

Increased awareness of environmental protection and sustainability means that the proportion of plastics material in packaging is increasingly being reduced and replaced by biodegradable and/or more easily recyclable materials, such as paper-based materials. Paper-based materials in particular are considered by consumers to be more sustainable than plastics materials, so that the highest possible proportion of such material is considered desirable. At the same time, packaging made from paper-based materials must also meet child safety requirements. There are therefore already various approaches to combining the goals of sustainability and child safety in the region of the packagings.

For example, DE 102019132879 A1 discloses a bag-shaped paper packaging with a child-resistant closure designed as a zipper. Although the bag of this packaging is preferably made entirely of paper-based material, one disadvantage is that the closure is made entirely or at least largely of plastics material. This makes it difficult to dispose of the empty packaging separately and to recycle it. To do this, the closure would first have to be separated from the rest of the packaging. This appears to be in need of improvement.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention therefore has the object of providing a sustainably designed closure device for a packaging, wherein the closure device meets the requirements for child safety and at the same time can be opened easily by an adult. It is a further object of the invention to provide a packaging equipped with such a closure device.

These objects are achieved by a closure device comprising the features of claim 1 and by a packaging comprising a closure device of this type having the features of claim 9.

The dependent claims relate to specific embodiments and developments of the invention.

According to claim 1, the invention is a closure device for attaching to a packaging container, the packaging container being closable by the attached closure device such that it can be reclosed but cannot be opened by children. The closure device is characterized in that it is made in a proportion of at least 70% of a paper-based material and comprises a tab receptacle delimiting a receiving space and an insertion tab having a hook element, wherein the insertion tab, in order to close the closure device, can be inserted in the receiving space of the tab receptacle and wherein an edge is provided in the receiving space with which a free end of the hook element of the insertion tab lockingly engages when the insertion tab is inserted in the receiving space so that it is possible to withdraw the insertion tab from the receiving space, in order to open the closure device, only when simultaneously pressure is applied to the hook element in order to release locking, wherein for this purpose an opening is formed in a wall of the tab receptacle near the edge, through which opening pressure can be applied to the hook element, which is inserted in the receiving space, in such a way that the free end of the hook element is released from locking.

The invention thus provides that for the child-resistant closure of a packaging container, a closure device can be attached to the packaging container, which closure device is made in a proportion of at least 70% of a paper-based material. If the packaging container itself is made of a paper-based material, the combination of packaging container and closure device can be easily recycled without the closure device having to be separated from the packaging container beforehand. The closure device according to the invention comprises a tab receptacle delimiting a receiving space and an insertion tab having a hook element, wherein the insertion tab can be inserted in the receiving space of the tab receptacle to close the closure device. A free end of the hook element of the insertion tab lockingly engages with an edge arranged in the receiving space in such a way that the insertion tab cannot be easily pulled back out of the tab receptacle. Rather, to open the closure device, it is necessary to simultaneously exert pressure on the hook element, which releases the free end of the hook element from locking so that the insertion tab can be withdrawn from the tab receptacle. According to the invention, an opening is formed in a wall of the tab receptacle near the edge, through which opening pressure can be applied to the hook element, which is inserted in the receiving space, in such a way that the free end of the hook element is released from locking.

Here too, a combination of two movements is required to open the closure device, namely pressing on the hook element through the opening formed in the wall of the tab receptacle and simultaneously withdrawing the insertion tab from the tab receptacle. The direction in which the pressure is to be exerted on the hook element and the direction in which the insertion tab is to be withdrawn from the tab receptacle are substantially orthogonal to one another. Such a complex movement pattern, which generally requires both hands, is usually not possible for small children to perform, but can be accomplished by an adult without major difficulties.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the opening is formed in a front wall portion of the tab receptacle and the edge in the receiving space is also arranged in the region of the front wall portion of the tab receptacle. Alternatively, the opening is formed in a rear wall portion of the tab receptacle and the edge in the receiving space is also arranged in the region of the rear wall portion of the tab receptacle.

A “front wall portion” is understood to mean a portion of the wall of the tab receptacle which, when the closure device is attached to a packaging container, faces away from the packaging container and toward a consumer. Accordingly, a “rear wall portion” is understood to mean a portion of the wall of the tab receptacle which, when the closure device is attached to a packaging container, faces the packaging container and faces away from a consumer.

A difference between the two previously described embodiments is that the opening in the wall of the tab receptacle is immediately visible to a consumer if it is formed in a front wall portion of the tab receptacle, whereas if it is formed in a rear wall portion of the tab receptacle, it is not immediately visible to a consumer. In view of the child safety of the locking device, the second alternative can be particularly advantageous, because an essential element of the opening mechanism is visually concealed in this way.

In both cases, a consumer can exert direct pressure on the hook element formed on the insertion tab through the opening in the wall, whereby the free end of the hook element is moved away from the edge within the receiving space and thus released from locking. By simultaneously pulling the insertion tab out of the receiving space, the locking device can be opened.

In principle, the tab receptacle and the insertion tab can be designed as two separate elements that can be attached individually to the packaging container, for example by gluing and/or sealing and/or welding.

However, it can also be provided according to the invention that the closure device is formed from a coherent two-dimensional material blank by folding and gluing, wherein the two-dimensional material blank comprises a first partial portion for forming the tab receptacle and a second partial portion for forming the insertion tab. In this embodiment of the invention, the tab receptacle and the insertion tab are therefore not designed as independent individual parts, but can both be formed from a coherent material blank by folding and gluing. For this purpose, the material blank may have fold lines along which the material portion can be folded, wherein the tab receptacle is formed by additionally gluing individual regions of the folded material portion. In particular, the material blank comprises a portion which serves to attach the closure device to a packaging container. If a closure device is attached, for example glued, to a packaging container, the insertion tab can be inserted in the tab receptacle in such a way that the closure device and thus the packaging container are closed and cannot be opened by a child.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the first partial portion of the two-dimensional material blank comprises a tab for forming the edge within the receiving space. In other words, the edge serving to lock the hook element in the closed position of the closure device can also be formed directly by folding the material blank by folding a tab provided for this purpose on the first partial portion of the material blank into the receiving space of the tab receptacle and gluing it there to the wall of the tab receptacle. The edge is formed by a free end of the tab.

In addition, it can be provided that the first partial portion of the material blank comprises at least one tab for forming a spacer element. By folding this tab a plurality of times, turning it into the receiving space and partially gluing it to the wall of the tab receptacle, a spacer element can be formed by which a front wall portion and a rear wall portion of the tab receptacle can be kept substantially at a fixed distance from one another. In particular, multiple tabs can be provided to form multiple spacer elements. The at least one spacer element thus serves to stabilize the receiving space.

One embodiment provides that the second partial portion comprises a tab which serves to form the hook element of the insertion tab. In this way, the hook element can also be formed by folding the corresponding tab.

The invention can be designed such that the closure device is made in a proportion of at least 80%, preferably at least 95%, and most preferably 100% of a paper-based material. In other words, it can be provided that the closure device is made entirely, or at least to a very large extent, from a paper-based material.

According to claim 9, the invention also relates to a packaging with a packaging container having a removal opening and a closure device according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the closure device is attached to the packaging container such that the removal opening can be closed by closing the closure device but cannot be opened by children.

The closure device can be attached to the packaging container by gluing and/or sealing and/or welding.

According to one embodiment, the opening is formed in a front wall portion of the tab receptacle facing away from the packaging container in such a way that it is immediately visible to a consumer, wherein the edge in the receiving space is also arranged correspondingly in the region of the front wall portion of the tab receptacle. In this case, in order to open the closure device, a consumer can exert pressure on the hook element, which is also visible through the opening, from the front side of the tab receptacle facing him, so that the hook element is released from locking on the edge lying within the receiving space and the insertion tab can be withdrawn from the tab receptacle.

According to an alternative embodiment, the opening is formed in a rear wall portion of the tab receptacle facing the packaging container in such a way that it is not directly visible to a consumer, wherein, correspondingly, the edge in the receiving space is also arranged in the region of the rear wall portion of the tab receptacle. In this case, in order to open the closure device, a consumer must reach into a space between the tab receptacle and the packaging container and exert pressure on the hook element located in the tab receptacle through the opening formed there in the rear wall of the tab receptacle, which is not immediately visible to him, so that the hook element is released from locking on the edge located within the receiving space and the insertion tab can be withdrawn from the tab receptacle. It is an advantage of the latter alternative that the opening in the wall of the tab receptacle, as an essential element of the opening mechanism, is not immediately visible, so that it is generally even more difficult for a child to gain access to the contents of the packaging container.

In the embodiments described here, the closure device comprises a hook element and an opening in the wall of the tab receptacle. In principle, it is also possible for the closure device to have multiple, for example two, hook elements and correspondingly two spaced-apart openings in the wall of the tab receptacle, so that in order to open the closure device by external pressure, both hook elements must be released simultaneously from their locking on the edge before the insertion tab can be withdrawn from the tab receptacle. Due to the precise action required with both hands, the child safety of such a locking device is generally even higher.

According to one embodiment, the packaging container can be designed as a stand-up pouch and made of a paper-based material. Alternatively, the packaging container can also be designed, for example, as a cuboid-shaped packaging made of a paper-based material. The packaging container can be used to hold goods that must be stored in a child-proof manner, for example household chemicals such as washing and cleaning agents, in particular washing and cleaning agents offered in portion packs.

According to the invention, the entire packaging, comprising a packaging container and a closure device, can be made substantially entirely from a paper-based material and is thus particularly easy and efficient to recycle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail by means of an exemplary embodiment and with reference to the attached figures. In the figures:

FIG. 1: shows a first material blank for forming a first embodiment of the closure device according to the invention;

FIG. 2: shows a packaging with a closure device formed from the material blank from FIG. 1 in the open state;

FIG. 3: shows the packaging of FIG. 2, with the packaging completely closed;

FIG. 4: shows a section through the closed closure device from FIG. 3 in a detailed view;

FIG. 5: shows an enlarged detail of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6: shows a second material blank for forming a second embodiment of the closure device according to the invention;

FIG. 7: shows a packaging with a closure device formed from the material blank from FIG. 6 in the open state;

FIG. 8: shows the packaging of FIG. 7, the packaging being completely closed;

FIG. 9: shows a section through the closed closure device from FIG. 8 in a detailed view;

FIG. 10: shows an enlarged detail of FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a two-dimensional material blank, designated as a whole by 10, for forming a closure device 1. The closure device 1 that can be formed from the material blank 10 is part of a packaging 100 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, comprising a packaging container 2 and the closure device 1 attached to the packaging container 2. The packaging container 2 is designed as a stand-up pouch with a removal opening 3 and serves, for example, to hold portion packs of a washing or cleaning agent. Both the packaging container 2 and the closure device 1 are made of a paper-based material.

Before the material blank 10 and the manner in which the closure device 1 is formed from the material blank 10 are described, the functioning of the closure device 1 is explained in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

The closure device 1 allows child-resistant closure of the packaging container 2. For this purpose, the closure device 1 comprises a tab receptacle 4 and an insertion tab 5. The tab receptacle 4 delimits a substantially cuboid-shaped receiving space 6 which is open at the top and into which the insertion tab 5 can be inserted from above to close the closure device 1. For this purpose, the insertion tab 5 is folded forward over the removal opening 3 of the packaging container 2 and inserted in the receiving space 6 of the tab receptacle 4. A hook element 7 is formed on the insertion tab 5, the free end 8 of which lockingly engages with an edge 9 arranged in the receiving space 6 and not visible in the illustration in FIGS. 2 and 3 when the insertion tab 5 is inserted in the receiving space 6. This will be explained in more detail later in reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

As soon as the free end 8 of the hook element 7 lockingly engages with the edge 9, it is not easily possible to withdraw the insertion tab 5 from the receiving space 6 of the tab receptacle 4, so that the packaging container 2 is securely closed, as shown in FIG. 3. To open the locking device 1, the hook element 7 must be subjected to pressure from the outside in order to release it from locking on the edge 9. For this purpose, an opening 21 is formed in a front wall portion 20 of the tab receptacle 4, through which opening the hook element 7 inserted in the receiving space 4 can be subjected to pressure by a user with his finger in such a way that the free end 8 of the hook element 7 is released from locking and at the same time the insertion tab 5 can be pulled back out of the tab receptacle 4 to open the closure device 1. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the opening 21 is arranged exclusively in the front wall portion 20. In principle, it is also possible for the opening 21 to extend beyond the fold line designated as 18 into the rear wall portion 22. What is essential in the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 5, however, is that at least part of the opening 21 is located in the region of the front wall portion 20, so that this opening 21, as can be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3, is immediately visible to a consumer.

FIG. 3 shows the packaging 100 in the closed state, in which the insertion tab 5 is inserted in the receiving space 6 of the tab receptacle 4. The hook element 7 inserted in the receiving space 6 can be seen through the opening 21 in the front wall portion 20 of the wall of the tab receptacle 4. By applying pressure from the outside and through the opening 21 onto the hook element 7, said hook element can be released from locking on the edge 9 arranged in the receiving space 6, and, by simultaneously pulling the insertion tab 5 upward, said tab can be withdrawn from the tab receptacle 4 to open the closure device 1.

FIG. 4 shows a representation of a part of the packaging 100 in section along the section line A-A in FIG. 3. Shown are the front and rear walls of the packaging container 2 as well as the tab receptacle 4 arranged in the region of the front wall of the packaging container 2. The tab receptacle 4 in turn comprises a front wall portion 20 and a rear wall portion 22 lying directly on the packaging container 2. The receiving space 6 is formed between the wall portions 20 and 22. An edge 9 is arranged in the receiving space 6, which edge is more clearly visible in the enlarged detailed view of FIG. 5. The edge 9 is formed here by the free end of a tab 23 bent inward into the receiving space 6. When the insertion tab 5 is inserted in the receiving space 6, the free end 8 of the hook element 7 lockingly engages with the edge 9, see FIG. 5. This has the consequence that the insertion tab 5 cannot easily be withdrawn from the receiving space 6 in a direction according to arrow S. Rather, to open the closure device 10, it is necessary to release the hook element 7 from locking on the edge 9 by applying pressure from the outside in the direction of the arrow P and through the opening 21 in the wall of the tab receptacle 4 and at the same time to pull the then released insertion tab 5 upward out of the tab receptacle 4 in the direction of the arrow S.

Such a complex movement pattern is generally not possible for small children, so that the packaging container 2 can be closed by the closure device 10 but cannot be opened by children.

The engagement of the hook element 7 in the region of the edge 9 when inserting the insertion tab 5 into the receiving space 6 is in particular also acoustically perceptible, so that a user has certainty that the packaging 100 is properly closed.

The closure device 1 shown in FIGS. 2 to 5 was formed from the two-dimensional material blank 10 shown in FIG. 1 by folding and gluing. The material blank 10 is made of cardboard and comprises a first partial portion 11 for forming the tab receptacle 4 and a second partial portion 12 for forming the insertion tab 5.

Both partial portion 11 and partial portion 12 comprise multiple fold lines, which are shown as dashed lines in FIG. 1. To form the tab receptacle 4, a tab 23 is first folded forward along the corresponding fold line onto the front wall portion 20 and glued thereto. In this way, the edge 9 comes to lie adjacent to the opening 21. Subsequently, two flaps 13 and 14 are folded a plurality of times along the relevant fold lines and folded forward onto the rear wall portion 22 and partially glued thereto. The elements formed from the tabs 13 and 14 later act as spacer elements between the front wall portion 20 and the rear wall portion 22.

Subsequently, side flaps 15 and 16 are folded forward along their fold lines, and finally the front wall portion 20 is folded upward along the fold lines 17 and 18 onto the rear wall portion 22. The front wall portion 20 and the rear wall portion 22 are connected to one another by gluing by means of the tabs 15 and 16, so that the receiving space 6 is formed between the wall portions 20 and 22. The spacer elements formed from the two tabs 13 and 14 hold the front wall portion 20 and the rear wall portion 22 of the tab receptacle 4 substantially at a fixed distance from one another and thus stabilize the receiving space 6.

The second partial portion 12 is folded backward along the fold lines 19, so that a packaging container 2 to be closed can be inserted between the folded partial portion 12 and the tab receptacle 4 formed from the partial portion 11. A connection between the packaging container 2 and the closure device 1 is then made by gluing a rear wall of the packaging container 2 to a region 30 of the second partial portion 12 and by gluing a front wall of the packaging container 2 to regions of the rear wall portion 22 of the tab receptacle 4, see also the sectional view of FIG. 4.

In order to be able to insert the insertion tab 5 for closing the closure device 10 into the receiving space 6 of the tab receptacle 4, the second partial portion 12 is folded along the fold lines 31 and 32, specifically toward the front in the view of FIG. 2. Finally, along the fold line 33, the tab 24 comprising the free end 8 of the partial portion 12 is folded backward in the view of FIG. 2 in order to form the hook element 7.

In this way, it is thus possible to form the closure device 1 by folding and gluing entirely from a coherent two-dimensional material blank 10, which in turn is manufactured, for example, by punching out of a cardboard material. Such a closure device 10 can be easily attached to different packaging containers, for example to a stand-up pouch made of paper. However, by slight modifications to the dimensions of the material blank 10, a closure device can also be formed which can be attached, for example, to a cuboid-shaped cardboard packaging.

FIG. 6 shows a second material blank 10 for forming a second embodiment of the closure device 10 according to the invention. The same components are provided with the same reference signs. The material blank 10 of FIG. 6 differs from the material blank 10 of FIG. 1 only in that the opening 21 is formed in the rear wall portion 22 of the tab receptacle 4 and the tab 23, which serves to form the edge 9, also extends from the rear partial portion 22.

The formation of a closure device 1 from the material blank 10 of FIG. 6 by folding and gluing is carried out analogously to the above-described formation of the closure device 1 from the material blank 10 of FIG. 1. Only the tab 23 is here, due to its changed arrangement, not folded over onto the front partial portion 20 but onto the rear partial portion 22 and glued thereto, so that the edge 9 here again comes to lie adjacent to the opening 21, which is also arranged in the rear partial portion 22. In addition, the tab 24 of the partial portion 12 is folded forward rather than backward along the fold line 33 to form the hook element 7, which can also be seen in FIG. 7.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show a packaging 100 comprising a packaging container 2 and a closure device 1 made from the material blank 10 of FIG. 6 in the open and closed states, respectively.

A significant difference from the representation in FIGS. 2 and 3 is that the opening 21 in the embodiment according to FIGS. 7 and 8 is not directly visible, because it is located in the rear wall portion 22 of the tab receptacle 4 and is thus facing away from a viewer. To open the closure device 1 according to FIGS. 7 and 8, a user must reach with one or more fingers from a lower edge 34 of the tab receptacle 4 between the tab receptacle 4 and the front wall of the receptacle 2, where he can feel the opening 21 arranged in the rear wall portion 22 of the tab receptacle 4. They can then exert pressure on the hook element 7 through the opening 21, so that the free end 8 of the hook element 7 is again released from locking on the edge 9 and the insertion tab 5 can then be withdrawn from the tab receptacle 4.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show, analogously to FIGS. 4 and 5, a sectional view or a detail of the sectional view in an enlarged view. It can be seen from these figures that in order to open the closure device 1, a user must reach from the lower edge 34 of the tab receptacle 4 between the tab receptacle 4 and the front wall of the packaging container 2 in order to be able to feel the opening 21 in the rear wall portion 22 of the tab receptacle 4 in the space between the tab receptacle 4 and the front wall of the packaging container 2 and to exert pressure on the hook element 7 through this opening 21 in a direction indicated by the arrow P. This pressure releases the free end 8 of the hook element 7 from its locking on the edge 9, and the insertion tab 5 can be withdrawn from the tab receptacle 4 in a direction indicated by the arrow S.

It is an advantage of this design variant that the opening 21, and thus an essential element of the opening mechanism, is not immediately visible from the outside, so that it is generally even more difficult for a child to gain access to the contents of the packaging container 2.

In the two embodiments described here, the closure device 1 is made from a coherent material blank 10. In principle, the tab receptacle 4 and the insertion tab 5 can also be designed independently of one another and attached individually to a packaging container 2.

Claims

1. A closure device for attaching to a packaging container, by which the packaging container is closable and can be reclosed but cannot be opened by children, wherein the closure device is made of at least 70% paper-based material and comprises a tab receptacle delimiting a receiving space and an insertion tab having a hook element, wherein to close the closure device, the insertion tab is inserted in the receiving space of the tab receptacle, and a free end of the hook element of the insertion tab lockingly engages with an edge of the receiving space, and in order to open the closure device, the insertion tab is withdrawn from the receiving space only when simultaneous pressure is applied to the hook element to release the lock, wherein for this purpose an opening is formed in a wall of the tab receptacle near the edge, through which opening pressure can be applied to the hook element in such a way that the free end of the hook element is released from locking.

2. The closure device according to claim 1, wherein the opening is formed in a front wall portion of the tab receptacle and that the edge is arranged in the receiving space in the region of the front wall portion of the tab receptacle.

3. The closure device according to claim 1, wherein the opening is formed in a rear wall portion of the tab receptacle and that the edge is arranged in the receiving space in the region of the rear wall portion of the tab receptacle.

4. The closure device according to claim 1, wherein the closure device is formed from a coherent two-dimensional material blank by folding and gluing, wherein the two-dimensional material blank comprises a first partial portion for forming the tab receptacle and a second partial portion for forming the insertion tab.

5. The closure device according to claim 4, wherein the first partial portion comprises a tab for forming the edge within the receiving space.

6. The closure device according to claim 4, wherein the first partial portion comprises at least one tab for forming a spacer element.

7. The closure device according to claim 4, wherein the second partial portion comprises a tab which serves to form the hook element of the insertion tab.

8. The closure device according to claim 1, wherein the closure device is made of at least 80% of a paper-based material.

9. A packaging comprising a packaging container with a removal opening and a closure device according to claim 1, wherein the closure device is attached to the packaging container such that by closing the closure device the removal opening can be reclosed but cannot be opened by children.

10. The packaging according to claim 9, wherein the closure device is attached to the packaging container by at least one method of gluing, sealing, or welding.

11. The packaging according to claim 9, wherein the opening is formed in a front wall portion of the tab receptacle facing away from the packaging container, such that it is immediately visible to a consumer, and that the edge is arranged in the receiving space in the region of the front wall portion of the tab receptacle.

12. The packaging according to claim 9, wherein the opening is formed in a rear wall portion of the tab receptacle facing the packaging container, such that it is not directly visible to a consumer, and the edge is arranged in the receiving space in the region of the rear wall portion of the tab receptacle.

13. The packaging according to claim 9, wherein the packaging container is designed as a stand-up pouch and is made of a paper-based material.

14. The packaging according to claim 9, wherein the packaging is made substantially from a paper-based material.