Patent Application
20180370667
The present disclosure relates in general to electronic vaping devices or e-vaping devices, and in particular to a packaging system that includes a tray holding one or more e-vaping device elements in place via a bent flexible element that is itself held in place by one or more lugs of the tray.
E-vaping devices, also referred to herein as electronic vaping devices (EVDs) may be used by adult vapers for portable vaping. One or more elements of an e-vaping device may be included in a package in which the one or more elements may be held in place by one or more portions of the packaging.
According to some example embodiments, a packaging system may include a tray including a cavity and a set of lugs on an inner surface of the cavity, a first object located within the cavity, and a flexible object at least partially located within the cavity. The flexible object may be bent and engaged against the set of lugs such that the flexible object is held in place at least partially within the cavity by the set of lugs and the first object is held within the cavity by the flexible object.
The tray may further include an additional cavity configured to hold an additional object within the additional cavity. The additional object may be a rechargeable battery.
The inner surface of the cavity may include two opposing sidewall surfaces. The set of lugs may include a separate lug on each wall of the two opposing sidewall surfaces.
The first object may include a cartridge for an e-vaping device.
According to some example embodiments, a method may include placing a first object within a cavity of a tray, the tray further including a set of lugs on an inner surface of the cavity, such that the first object is isolated from simultaneously engaging each lug of the set of lugs. The method may further include placing a bent flexible object within the cavity, such that the bent flexible object is held in place at least partially within the cavity by the set of lugs, and the first object is held within the cavity by at least the bent flexible object.
The tray may further include an additional cavity configured to hold an additional object within the additional cavity. The method may further include placing the additional object within the additional cavity, such that the additional object is held in place in the additional cavity. The additional object may be a rechargeable battery.
The inner surface of the cavity may include two opposing sidewall surfaces. The set of lugs may include a separate lug on each wall of the two opposing sidewall surfaces.
The first object may include a cartridge for an e-vaping device.
The various features and advantages of the non-limiting embodiments herein may become more apparent upon review of the detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings are merely provided for illustrative purposes and should not be interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. The accompanying drawings are not to be considered as drawn to scale unless explicitly noted. For purposes of clarity, various dimensions of the drawings may have been exaggerated.
Some detailed example embodiments are disclosed herein. However, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing example embodiments. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the example embodiments set forth herein.
Accordingly, while example embodiments are capable of various modifications and alternative forms, example embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit example embodiments to the particular forms disclosed, but to the contrary, example embodiments are to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of example embodiments. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description of the figures.
It should be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “connected to,” “coupled to,” or “covering” another element or layer, it may be directly on, connected to, coupled to, or covering the other element or layer or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there are no intervening elements or layers present. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the specification. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It should be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, regions, layers, and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, region, layer, or section from another region, layer, or section. Thus, a first element, region, layer, or section discussed below could be termed a second element, region, layer, or section without departing from the teachings of example embodiments.
Spatially relative terms (e.g., “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like) may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It should be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the term “below” may encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing various example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, and/or elements, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or groups thereof.
Example embodiments are described herein with reference to cross-sectional illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments (and intermediate structures) of example embodiments. As such, variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, example embodiments should not be construed as limited to the shapes of regions illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which example embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, including those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
Referring to
The bent flexible object 212, engaged against one or more lugs of the tray such that the bent flexible objection 212 is held in place by the one or more lugs of the tray 100, holds the first object 210 within the first cavity 110 based on defining, in combination with one or more portions of the first cavity 110, a closed volume of space (referred to herein as “closed enclosure 250”) in which the first object 210 is enclosed within the first cavity 110. Thus, the first object 210 is precluded from exiting the first cavity 110, even though the first object 210 is not directly held (“fixed”) in place (e.g., fastened to the tray 100) by any portions (e.g., lugs) of the tray 100 itself.
Thus, the first object 210 is precluded from being removed from the first cavity 110, intentionally or unintentionally, while the bent flexible object 212 remains held in place by the tray 100. The bent flexible object 212 is held in place, in a bent configuration, by one or more lugs 112, 114 against which the bent flexible object 212 is engaged.
Referring to
As shown in
For example, as shown in
Still referring to
In some example embodiments, each lug included in the tray 100 may have one or more various cross-sectional shapes. A cross-sectional shape of a lug in the tray 100 may be a shape that is a protrusion from a surface of the tray. Such a protrusion may have a shape of a polygon, a curve, some combination thereof, or the like. In some example embodiments, a lug (e.g., one or more of lugs 112, 114) may have a parabolic cross-sectional shape, a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape, a triangular cross-sectional shape, or the like. Separate lugs in a set of lugs may have different, mirrored shapes. For example, in the example embodiments shown in
As shown in
Referring back to
As shown in
The flexible object 212 may be a planar object (e.g., a card, coupon, etc.) that is made of (“at least partially comprises”) a flexible material (e.g., paper, cardstock, plastic, etc.), such that the flexible object 212 may be bent, reversibly or irreversibly, into various shapes. In the example embodiments shown in
Still referring to
As shown in
As further shown in
Still referring to
For example, in the example embodiments shown in
As described herein, an e-vaping device may include one or more of the features set forth in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0192623 to Tucker et al. filed Jan. 31, 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto. As used herein, the term “e-vaping device” is inclusive of all types of electronic vaping devices, regardless of form, size or shape.
Still referring to
For example, assembling a package that includes multiple objects 210, 220, 230, 212 held in place therein may require expenditures of assembler (e.g., human operator, machine, etc.) effort, time, and various resources. By enabling the first object 210 to be held in place in relation to the tray 100 by at least the bent flexible object 212, the packaging system 200 enables improved efficiency of assembly of a package in which at least the first object 210 is held in place therein.
For example, assembly of a package that includes the first object 210 and the flexible object 212 may include simply placing the first object 210 within the first cavity 110 and subsequently bending the flexible object 212 and placing the bent flexible object 212 in the first cavity 110 such that the lugs 112, 114 hold the bent flexible object 212 in place over the first object 210 to establish the closed enclosure 250.
Because the first cavity 110 is configured to hold the first object 210 without the first object 210 simultaneously engaging and/or directly contacting each of the lugs 112, 114, the first object 210 may be placed in the first cavity 110 without time and/or effort being expended to manipulate and/or bend the lugs 112, 114 to enable such placement.
In addition, because the flexible object 212 is flexible, the flexible object 212 may be bent to fit under the lugs 112, 114 as shown in
As a result, the time and/or effort expended to place the first object 210 and flexible object 212 into the tray 100, such that the flexible object 212 is bent and is engaged against and held in place by lugs 112, 114 to further hold the first object 210 within a closed enclosure 250, may be a reduced expenditure of time and/or effort relative to such expenditures associated with manipulating and/or bending lugs of the tray 100 to directly engage and hold the first object 210 in place in relation to the tray 100. Thus, the packaging system 200 is configured to be assembled, such that at least the first object 210 and flexible object 212 are held therein, with improved efficiency and reduced expenditures of costs, effort, and/or assembly time.
Furthermore, the packaging system 200 enables the flexible object 212 and the first object 210 to both be held in the same first cavity 110, where the flexible object 212 enables the first object 210 to be held in the first cavity 110 based on the lugs 112, 114 holding the flexible object 212 in place to establish the closed enclosure 250 in which the first object 210 is located. As a result, an amount of packaging material (e.g., tray 100 material) may be reduced, as excess material associated with directly engaging with, and holding in place, the first object 210 may be omitted. In addition, because both the first object 210 and the flexible object 212 may be held in a common first cavity 110, a size of the tray 100 configured to hold both the first object 210 and the flexible object 212 may be reduced, thereby improving packaging size efficiency and compactness. Such improved size efficiency and compactness may enable improved quantities of such packaging to be shipped, stored, and/or displayed.
In some example embodiments, the flexible object 212 may include information 211 on an upper surface thereof, as shown in
The tray 100 may include various materials (e.g., plastic materials) and may be formed via various operations. For example, in
The assembling may, in some example embodiments, be implemented by an assembler that includes a human operator and/or a machine assembler. A machine assembler may be one or more devices that includes a manipulator device (e.g., a manipulator arm, a conveyer belt device, a thermoforming assembly (e.g., heater, mold, vacuum pump, and/or trimmer), some combination thereof, or the like), a memory (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) storing a program of instructions, and a processor (e.g., processing circuitry, including a CPU, ASIC, some combination thereof, or the like) configured to execute the stored program of instructions to control the manipulator device to perform the operations illustrated in
At S302, a tray (e.g., tray 100) is manufactured. The tray 100 includes at least one cavity (e.g., first cavity 110) with at least one set of lugs (e.g., lugs 112, 114) on at least one inner surface (e.g., a sidewall surface 117) of the at least one cavity. The tray may be manufactured based on controlling one or more devices (e.g., a heater, mold, trimmer, etc.) to implement a thermoforming operation with regard to an instance of plastic (e.g., a sheet of plastic) to form the tray.
At S304, a first object (e.g., first object 210) is placed within the at least one cavity (e.g., first cavity 110) of the tray, such that the first object is isolated from directly contacting (“engaging”) each of the lugs of the cavity simultaneously. The first object may simply rest on a bottom surface (e.g., bottom surface 113) of the cavity and may be isolated from directly contacting any of the lugs of the cavity, as the first object may not be sufficiently large in size to simultaneously contact each of the lugs.
At S306, a flexible object is bent and placed at least partially into the cavity, such that the lugs of the cavity directly contact the bent flexible object and hold the flexible object in place, in the bent configuration, at least partially within the cavity. The bent flexible object thus, collectively with one or more surfaces of the cavity, establishes a closed space (“closed enclosure”) over the first object, such that the first object is precluded from exiting the cavity, by at least the bent flexible object directly and by the lugs of the cavity indirectly. Thus, the first object and the bent flexible object are both held in the packaging system.
While a number of example embodiments have been disclosed herein, it should be understood that other variations may be possible. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
