Patent Application
20220324631
The invention relates to a mailing or packaging bag for an item to be shipped, in particular also referred to as an envelope, having two outer walls which form an outer shell, are arranged essentially parallel to one another, enclose an interior space for accommodating an item, and are each provided with padding on their inner side facing the interior space.
Padded mailing or packing envelopes, also referred to as “lined envelopes”, are used to mail or transport items such as books, plastic products, or other items that may be damaged or injured if handled carelessly and not safely.
Overall, numerous types of padded envelopes or packaging bags are known, the padding usually being formed by air pockets formed from plastic layers, from a thermoplastic foam or the like. The aforementioned air pockets in particular provide comparatively good cushioning and thus a protective effect, by means of which the effect of external forces on the product in the envelope can be absorbed or eliminated. On the other hand, however, this type of construction also means that such padding requires a comparatively large amount of space, precisely because of the high proportion of air pockets. Particularly in the case of large quantities, the voluminous design can therefore result in an undesirably high space requirement for storage, intermediate storage or transport of such lined envelopes or padded shipping bags.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a shipping or packaging envelope of the type mentioned above which, on the one hand, ensures a high and reliable protective effect for the product in the envelope comparable with existing concepts, but which, on the other hand, can be stored and transported in a particularly space-saving manner.
With regard to the envelope, this object is achieved in accordance with the invention in that the outer walls forming the outer envelope each have, on their inner side facing the interior, padding formed by a profiled inner wall, the profiles of the inner walls being matched to one another in such a way that they engage with one another when the interior is unfilled.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject of the subclaims.
The invention is based on the consideration that in principle, analogous to many already known padded envelopes, a good protective effect for the product contained in the envelope can be ensured by providing the padding by means of a profiled inner wall attached to the inside of the outer walls in each case. The profiling, i.e., suitable contouring of the surface, can form alternating surface portions in contact with the outer wall and inwardly bulging or shaped surface portions which, in terms of their protective action, correspond to the above-mentioned air pockets or cavities. However, such contouring already requires a certain thickness of the ensemble of outer and associated inner wall due to the profile depth of the inner wall, and this thickness is also unavoidable for reasons of the protective effect for the product. However, in order to keep the overall thickness as low as possible when the envelope or shipping bag is empty and thus also to minimize the space required, especially when storing and transporting a large number of such unfilled envelopes, the overall system should be designed so that the thicknesses of the two ensembles, each comprising an outer and an inner wall, do not add up. This is achieved in that the profiles of the inner walls are suitably matched and adapted to each other so that, when the envelope is unfilled, the profiles interact and engage with each other in the manner of a patrix-matrix combination.
The profiling could be realized by projections arranged on a base surface, for example pyramid-shaped or hemispherical protrusions. In contrast, however, a substantially wave-shaped profiling is regarded as particularly advantageous and independently inventive, so that the inner walls are each designed in the manner of a corrugated layer. Advantageously, these are positioned relative to one another and connected to the outer walls in such a way that the respective corrugated or profiled crest of the first inner wall comes to lie in a corrugated or profiled valley of the second inner wall in the unfilled state.
Advantageously, the inner walls forming the respective cushioning due to their profiling are designed in such a way that they form a number of cavities or air chambers on their own and/or in conjunction with the respectively assigned outer wall. Due to their shape-related deformability and elasticity, these can ensure a particularly good and reliable protective effect for the inserted product. In a further advantageous embodiment, the shape-related cavities are filled with a damping material.
A particularly durable, low-cost, easy-to-implement and, moreover, particularly environmentally friendly padding for packaging or shipping bags is available in a very particularly advantageous embodiment which is regarded as independently inventive, in that the inner walls forming the padding are based on a cellulose material, particularly preferably paper or cardboard. This embodiment is particularly advantageous over known envelope concepts in which the padding was formed by air pockets formed from plastic layers or from a thermoplastic foam. Such air pockets have the particular disadvantage that damage to the plastic layers causes the air to escape, resulting in a reduction or even complete elimination of the cushioning effect. The use and application of thermoplastic foam, on the other hand, is very complex and cost-intensive in the manufacturing process.
In contrast, a particularly simple and cost-effective production of padded shipping or packaging envelopes with recourse to the paper or cardboard commonly used for the outer walls can be achieved if the use of additional, foreign materials is deliberately dispensed with. Particularly with regard to environmental aspects, especially disposal issues, and also with regard to the materials commonly used for the envelopes, namely paper or cardboard, the padding is thus also formed from these materials in this embodiment. By avoiding foreign materials, a particularly simple and fast connection, for example bonding, of the padding to the envelope can also be achieved using already existing machine components.
In order to cushion impact forces on the goods to be packaged, i.e., to provide padding, the paper or cardboard elements which are to form the padding are specifically arranged, profiled or formed in such a way that air chambers or cavities are formed. In an advantageous embodiment, this can be achieved by using corrugated paper or a corrugated cardboard as padding. In order to enable the desired interaction of the profiles of the inner walls in the manner of a matrix-patrix arrangement in a particularly simple manner, particularly with this choice of material, in which the inner walls forming the padding are made of corrugated paper or corrugated cardboard, the inner walls are thereby advantageously aligned with one another with a corrugation direction running essentially parallel to one another in such a way that in each case a corrugation crest of a first inner wall overlaps with a corrugation trough of the second inner wall. In other words, the corrugated layers forming the inner walls, preferably made of corrugated paper or corrugated cardboard, are inserted in such a way that the respective corrugation or profile crest on the format panel (corresponding to the front side of the envelope) comes to lie in a corrugation or profile valley on the bottom flap (corresponding to the rear side of the envelope).
This design can be achieved in a particularly simple and reliable manner in that, in a particularly advantageous embodiment, the padding for both inner walls is produced from a single, common corrugated sheet. Advantageously, this sheet is first simply folded during production of the padding, after any necessary trimming and adjustment to the desired target size, and then corrugated or generally provided with the intended profiling in this folded state. This automatically produces the desired matrix-patrix design, and the folded and profiled sheet forming both inner walls can be suitably inserted into the envelope forming the outer walls.
In a further advantageous embodiment, the inner walls forming the padding are aligned with their corrugation direction substantially longitudinally or parallel to the filling direction of the mailing bag or envelope. In the case of an envelope which is provided with a closure flap on one of its longitudinal sides, the longitudinal directions of the crests and troughs of the corrugations of the profiling thus extend substantially perpendicularly to the direction in which the closure flap extends.
For comprehensive protection of the goods also in the direction of the closure flap, the padding in a further advantageous embodiment also extends to at least partial areas of the closure flap.
In one embodiment of the invention, the inner walls forming the padding can be inserted or inserted into the actual envelope forming the outer walls without further fastening. However, a particularly mechanically stable design of the mailing bag or envelope can be achieved in that, in an advantageous embodiment, the inner walls forming the padding are bonded to the outer wall associated therewith at their points of contact therewith. In the case of an embodiment of the inner walls in corrugated form, i.e., preferably as corrugated paper or as corrugated cardboard, these act mechanically like stiffening ribs which promote a corresponding mechanical strength of the outer walls. By means of complete or preferably also only partial and selective bonding at the contact points, this stiffening effect can be influenced and adjusted according to predeterminable criteria; for example, in the case of only partial bonding of the corrugated inner walls to the respectively associated outer wall, a certain flexibility can be permitted and specifically adjusted as required. In particular, the damping and stiffness/strength properties of the envelope as a whole can be influenced by suitable alignment and design of the 3D profiles in combination with full-surface or partial gluing to the outer shell.
The advantages achieved with the invention consist in particular in the fact that the overall thickness of the still empty envelope can be kept particularly low by the coordinated profiling of the inner walls, which interlock when the envelope is empty. In particular, the individual thicknesses of the ensembles of inner and outer walls, which are essentially determined by the profile depth of the inner walls, do not add up when the envelope is empty, so that the space required for storage can, be kept particularly low, especially when a large number of such envelopes are stocked. The interlocking of the profiled inner layers thus results in a transport or storage volume that is small for the transport or storage of the padded bag. As a result, a flat, space-saving envelope is achieved in the unfilled state, and it is only when filled with a filling that the desired cushioning effect is produced on both sides. A farther advantage of the design according to the invention is that, in the case of an envelope filled with a transport item or product, in which the product, viewed in the area of the envelope, is arranged only in its central region, the edge regions are kept comparatively thin compared with the central region as a result of the profiles being matched to one another; the filled envelope thus tapers from the central region, in which the product is located, towards the edge. This creates a wedge or clamping effect towards the edges, which additionally fixes the product in the center area and provides additional, special protection against impact loads in the edge area.
In addition, the use of padding made of paper or cardboard makes it particularly easy to integrate this padding into the manufacturing process of the packaging bags, because there is no need to use foreign materials and therefore no special processing features. Furthermore, the use of air chambers or cavities formed or enclosed by paper or cardboard is characterized by comparable stability and durability compared to the previously known variants made of plastic films, with significantly improved environmental friendliness.
An embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail with reference to a drawing. Therein show:
Identical parts are marked with the same reference numerals in all figures.
The packaging or shipping envelope 1 shown in
In addition, of course, a further pressure-sensitive adhesive strip and/or a tear strip or perforation could also be provided in the region of the closure flap. Not shown in the figures, but certainly provided if necessary, is a viewing window made of glassine or a transparent plastic in one of the outer walls 4, 6 of the envelope.
To protect the goods, the mailing envelope 1 comprises a padding 20 which is attached to the inside of the outer walls 4, 6. The padding 20 is formed by two profiled inner walls 22, 24, each of which is assigned to one of the outer walls 4, 6 and is arranged on their inner side facing the interior 8. When the envelope is filled, as shown in cross-section in
The effect of the cushioning 20, i.e., the protection of the goods 10 transported in the envelope against impacts or damage, is achieved by profiling the inner walls 22, 24. For this purpose, the inner walls 22, 24 have, for example by embossing, compression or another type of shaping, an applied three-dimensional profile in which cavities or intermediate spaces 26 are formed in the spatial shape by material folding or other contouring, possibly in conjunction with the respectively associated outer wall 4, 6. This profiling could, the example, comprise mouldings, pyramid-like embossings, grooves, hemispherical contours or the like. In the embodiment example, the profiling is achieved in that the inner walls 22, 24 are made of corrugated paper or corrugated board. Thus, in the embodiment example, the profiling of the inner walls 22, 24 provided for forming the padding 20 is in the form of a corrugated shape.
As can be clearly seen in the cross-sectional view shown in
The envelope or the shipping bag 1 is specifically designed for a particularly small space requirement in the unfilled state, i.e., during stocking, intermediate storage or transport. For this purpose, as can be seen particularly clearly from the enlarged sectional cross-sectional view in the unfilled state according to
The corrugated layers of corrugated paper or corrugated board forming the inner walls 22, 24 are thus inserted in such a way that the respective corrugated or profiled crest 30 on the format panel (corresponding to the front of the envelope) comes to lie in a corrugated or profiled valley 32 on the bottom flap (corresponding to the rear of the envelope). As can be clearly seen from the illustration in
In the region of their corrugation troughs 32, i.e., the lower longitudinal line of the corrugation contour, the inner walls 22, 24 are glued or bonded to the respective associated outer wall 4 or 6 in the contact region. In the embodiment example, this bonding is only partially and selectively executed at the contact points as viewed in the longitudinal direction; this ensures that the composite of inner wall 22, 24 with the respectively associated outer wall 4, 6 has a certain predetermined flexibility.
List of Reference Signs
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2019 121 473.4 | Aug 2019 | DE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2020/070314 | 7/17/2020 | WO |
