More particularly, the invention provides a lid and closure for cartons containing, directly or indirectly; a particulate product, for example a food product requiring protection from dirt, insects and moisture, the carton being opened by the end user, and the contents being required for use in stages over a time period of days or weeks.

Particulate products such as dry foods, detergents, and some industrial and medical products are often marketed in cartons, usually inside a water-impermeable pouch.

Personal-sized cartons may contain only sufficient product for immediate use, but the vast majority of packages contain material, for example a breakfast cereal, only a small portion of which is needed for immediate use. The remainder is stored in the original pouch and carton, although both have now been opened by the user. Certain food products deteriorate thereafter, loosing their desired aroma and absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. Foods such as sugar have a strong attraction for ants, while flour, cereals, sugar and table salt attract moisture. Product such as puffed wheat and corn-flakes are expected by consumers to be brittle, but will soften if left exposed to a damp atmosphere.

The product can be retained in storage by closing the pouch by means of an elastic band, a reusable adhesive strip, by an independent clamping device made for this purpose or by inserting the pouch in a plastic bag. None of these methods are convenient in use, and where no pouch is used and the product is held directly in the carton, re-closing the carton by provided carton tabs is not sufficiently effective.

If the carton contains a pouch, said pouch can be clamped by means of the outer carton being provided with a slot or other feature pre-cut in said carton. Sealing methods in this

category are disclosed by Hiersteiner in US Patent No. 4, 676, 394, by Gaves in US Patent No. 4,890, 761 and by Willman in US Patent No. 5,427, 267. To use a further portion of the contents after initial opening and closing, it is necessary to withdraw the pouch from the slot or other clamping feature of the carton. Re-sealing the pouch by reinsertion of its opening into the carton slot is a task unsuitable for young children, who are major consumers of breakfast cereal. Furthermore, the pouch clamping provided by the carton becomes weaker in use, particularly in a damp atmosphere. Obviously, where no pouch is used and the product is held directly in the carton, this type of clamping is inapplicable.

Objects of the Invention It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to obviate the disadvantages of prior art box resealing methods and to provide a device which re-closes a carton whether or not the product is contained in an inner pouch.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a closure easily operated by children as well as adults.

Summary of the Invention The present invention achieves the above objects by providing a closure for an opened carton box containing a particulate product, said closure comprising a body having an upper face and a lower face, a front edge, a rear edge, a right edge and a left edge (in the present configuration), said lower face being sized to be slightly larger than the open top of said box, a peripheral groove in said lower face corresponding to the open upper edges of said carton box which is attachable thereto, an aperture proximate to said left edge being sized to allow said particulate product to flow therethrough when said box is suitably tilted, and a sliding closure shutter being guided and supported by said body, said shutter being movable between a first position wherein said shutter covers said aperture and a second position allowing flow of said particulate product through said aperture.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided a box closure wherein said box contains a flexible pouch holding a particulate product, and wherein said peripheral groove is sufficiently wide to accept at least one layer of the carton material and additionally at least one layer of the pouch material after said pouch has been opened.

In a most preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided a box closure wherein said sliding closure shutter is provided with an aperture allowing the insertion therein of part of a finger of the user.

Yet further embodiments of the invention will be described hereinafter.

It will thus be realized that the novel closure of the present invention can be mass produced by injection molding and may serve as a sales promotion aid in the extremely competitive environment of breakfast cereals. As many different types of breakfast cereals are packaged in rectangular cardboard boxes of two or three standard sizes, the large manufacturing quantities made possible thereby will contribute to cost reduction.

Furthermore, the molded closure can be further utilized to carry a trade name or advertising message. Users will appreciate keeping the product fresh and clean, which will of course also benefit the product manufacturer.

Short Description of the Drawings The invention will now be described further with reference to the accompanying drawings, which represent by example preferred embodiments of the invention.

Structural details are shown only as far as necessary for a fundamental understanding thereof. The described examples, together with the drawings, will make apparent to those skilled in the art how further forms of the invention may be realized.

In the drawings:

FIG. la is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the closure according to the invention, shown assembled to a carton box; FIG. lb is a sectional side view of the closure without the carton box ; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a closure embodiment provided with decoration on its sides ; FIG. 3a is a perspective view of an embodiment of the closure separated from the shutter; FIG. 3b is a perspective view of a flat shutter; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a closure adapted to clamp onto an opened carton box and its inner pouch; FIG. 5 is a sectional side view of the closure seen in FIG. 4 ; and FIG. 6 is a fragmented sectional elevational view of a closure provided with a tapered peripheral groove.

Full Description of the Invention There is seen in FIG. I a a reusable closure 10 assembled onto an opened carton box 12.

The box 12 contains a particulate product 14, the closure 10 being particularly suitable for a carton containing a breakfast cereal such as puffed wheat, cornflakes, rice crispies and the like.

The closure 10 comprises a body 16 having an upper face 18 and a lower face 20, a front edge 22, a rear edge 24, a right edge 26 and a left edge 28. The lower face 20 is sized to be slightly larger than the open top of the box 12.

A peripheral groove 30, seen in FIG. lb, in the closure lower face 20 is sized and shaped to correspond to the open upper edges of the carton box 12, the closure 10 being seen attached thereto. Assembly of the closure 10 to the box 12 is made easier by the outward curvature of the four closure edges 22-28.

An aperture 32 for pouring out the product 14 is seen proximate to the left edge 28 of the closure. The aperture 32 is sized to allow the particulate product 14 to flow freely therethrough when the box 12 is held suitably tilted.

A sliding closure shutter 34 is guided and supported by the body 16. The shutter 34 is movable between a first position, towards the left in the diagram wherein the shutter covers the aperture 32, and thereby seals the box 12 to retain product freshness and to prevent ingress of dirt, insects and moisture. A shutter in its closed position will be seen in FIG. 4. The shutter 34 second, open position illustrated in FIG. la allows free flow of the particulate product 14 through the aperture 32.

The shutter 34 shown in the present embodiment is molded to provide a ledge 36 which serves as the operating handle.

After exhaustion of the box contents, the closure 10 is removed from the box 12 and becomes available for reuse.

The box closure 10 is suitably molded from a plastic such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), polypropylene, nylon and polyvinyl-chloride (PVC).

With reference to the rest of the figures, similar reference numerals have been used to identify similar parts.

Seen in FIG. 2 is a box closure 46 wherein the front 38, rear 40, right 42 and left 44 edges are decoratively shaped. The shutter 34 is seen in an intermediate, half open position.

FIG. 3a illustrates a box closure 48 wherein the sliding closure shutter 50, seen separately in FIG. 3b, is provided with an aperture 52 allowing the insertion therein of a small part of a finger of the user for operation of the shutter 50. The shutter 50 is made of a flat material and can be stamped out of strip material.

Advantageously the upper face 51 of closure 48 includes a recess 54 open only on its upper face. The recess 54 is sized and positioned to allow insertion of larger portion of a finger through the aperture 52 and into the recess 54 irrespective of the position of the closure shutter 50, thus easing the task of sliding the shutter 50 from one position to another.

With reference now to FIG. 4, there is seen a box closure 56 adapted for use in combination with a box 12 which contains a flexible pouch 58 holding the particulate product 14 seen in FIG. la. Such pouch 58 is provided where a product 14 is moisture sensitive and requires protection from long-term exposure to a damp atmosphere. The pouch 58 is made of aluminium foil or moisture impermeable paper. The pouch 58 seen in the figure has been opened and its edges 60 folded over the opened edges of the carton 12. The peripheral groove 62 seen in FIG. 5 is accordingly made sufficiently wide to accept two layers of the carton material and additionally two layers of the pouch material, allowing the closure 56 to be assembled over the folded edges of the pouch 58 and carton 12.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is depicted part of a box closure 64 wherein the peripheral groove 66 has a wedging tapered cross-section, the taper corresponding to the clearance angle used for allowing release of a plastic molding from its die. Wedging of the carton 12, alone or together with the pouch 58 material, provides a satisfactory seal and prevents inadvertent separation of the closure 64 from the box 12 seen in FIG. 4.

It is within the scope of the present invention to provide lids and closures of different straps.

The scope of the described invention is intended to include all embodiments coming within the meaning of the following claims. The foregoing examples illustrate useful forms of the invention, but are not to be considered as limiting its scope, as those skilled in the art will readily be aware that additional variants and modifications of the invention can be formulated without departing from the meaning of the following claims.