MULTILAYER PAPER MATERIAL, METHOD FOR ITS FORMING AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONTAINERS

The present invention relates to a multilayer papery material, a method for its preparation, and a method for producing three-dimensional containers. Multilayer papery materials are known, and in particular so-called

"corrugated cardboard", which comprises a sheet of corrugated paper, i.e. shaped to present a continuous succession of waves, and a flat paper sheet glued to the corrugated paper sheet along its crests. Two flat paper sheets can also be glued, one onto each side. Whether it presents one, two or more flat sheets, the known corrugated cardboard is mainly used in the technical packaging sector, in which the function of the corrugated paper layer is to protect the packaged products, while the function of the flat sheet or sheets is to stiffen the corrugated paper layer and to form a support for the printing. In known methods for producing the corrugated paper layer the wave crests are always transverse to the machine direction, i.e. perpendicular to the advancement direction of the paper web forming the corrugated layer. Because of this, the known corrugated cardboard has greater rigidity to bending in the transverse direction and lesser rigidity to bending in the longitudinal direction. In addition to being used for wrapping the most varied products, the known corrugated cardboard is also used to form boxes and containers in general, to hold the articles to be packaged, these not necessarily being the same shape as the container, hence their poor bending rigidity in the longitudinal direction gives rise to the difficulty of producing sufficiently rigid containers. To reduce this problem, it has previously been proposed to increase the number of corrugated paper layers, hence substantially increasing the weight and cost of the packaging.

An object of the invention is to provide a multilayer papery material which presents high rigidity to bending in all directions.

Another object of the invention is to provide a multilayer papery material on which, in contrast to traditional corrugated containers, writing can be printed or decorations be applied in relief.

These and other objects which will be apparent from the ensuing description are attained according to the invention by a multilayer papery material as described in claim 1.

According to the invention, to produce the multilayer papery material a method is used as described in claim 11.

To form three-dimensional containers using multilayer papery material, said papery material is subjected to the method described in claim 12.

Some preferred embodiments of the present invention are further clarified hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1a is a schematic section through the papery material according to the invention,

Figure 1 b shows it in exploded schematic section, Figure 2a shows a second embodiment thereof in schematic section, Figure 2b shows it in exploded schematic section, Figure 3 is a partially opened partial perspective view of a third embodiment thereof,

Figure 4a is an exploded perspective view of a punched sheet of multilayer material with which a parallelepiped container is to be formed, together with the flat mould for its deformation by stretch-forming, Figure 4b is a perspective view of the container produced,

Figure 5a is an exploded perspective view of a parallelepiped container obtained from a multilayer papery material, to be subjected to deformation by stretch-forming within a mould, Figure 5b shows the container produced, Figure 6 is a perspective view of a parallelepiped container, likewise obtained from the papery material of the invention and presenting on its lateral faces a different ornamental relief motif, and Figure 7 shows the same container as Figure 6, but presenting on its lateral faces yet a different ornamental relief motif. As can be seen from the figures, in the embodiment shown in Figure 1 the multilayer material of the invention consists of two layers 2, 4 of paper presenting extensibility characteristics of not less than 5% both in a longitudinal and in a transverse direction, and preferably not less than 15%.

The longitudinal direction means that direction along the axis of the continuous paper web leaving the paper machine, while the transverse direction means a direction perpendicular to the preceding.

The first paper layer 2 presents a succession of transverse waves and is produced by traditional corrugated cardboard production methods, i.e. using a corrugator, which bends the continuous web of papery material before being glued onto the second paper layer 4, which is instead maintained taut and acts as the support.

Alternatively, the single paper sheet 4 acting as the support could be made of extensible material while the corrugated paper sheet 2 is instead normal, i.e. is substantially without extensibility characteristics, except for its intrinsic extensibility which each paper sheet possesses.

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In the embodiment of Figures 2a and 2b, the multilayer material differs from that shown in Figures 1a and 1 b in that the corrugated layer 2 lies between two flat paper layers 4 and 4,, both presenting both longitudinal and transverse extensibility characteristics of not less than 5% and preferably not less than 15%. Depending on its particular use, the sheet 4 and possibly the sheet 4' can be coupled to further protective layers which need not be papery, but be likewise extensible, to provide the multilayer material with special characteristics, such as impermeability, bondability, printability, etc.

The embodiment shown in Figure 3 shows three sheet paper layers 12, 14 and 14', of which the intermediate layer 12 is a transversely corrugated paper layer, not necessarily extensible, while the two outer layers 14 and 14' are of extensible paper and before being glued to the intermediate layer 12 are subjected to plastic deformation treatment, which utilizes the extensibility characteristics of the paper to form therein a series of reliefs of different shapes on the basis of the use for which the multilayer papery material is intended.

Specifically, the outer sheet 14 comprises a plurality of circular reliefs 16 the function of which is essentially to increase the anti-impact characteristics which the intermediate layer 12 already gives to the multilayer and which prove particularly useful in using the material in the packaging sector. The outer sheet 14' presents instead a plurality of rectilinear reliefs 18 disposed perpendicular to the corrugations of the intermediate layer 12 and having the double function of further increasing the anti-impact characteristics of the multilayer material, due to the corrugations of the intermediate layer 12 and to the circular reliefs 16 of the outer layer 14, and of integrating the rigidity to longitudinal bending with the rigidity to transverse bending given by the transverse corrugations of the intermediate layer 12.

It should be noted that while the transverse corrugations of the intermediate layer 12 extend for the entire sheet width and can be produced by corrugation techniques which do not necessarily require the use of extensible paper, the circular reliefs 16 of the layer 14 and the longitudinal reliefs 18 of the layer 14' extend only for part of the width of the relative sheet and are produced by advantageously utilizing the extensibility characteristics of the paper forming the sheet.

From the production viewpoint the continuous sheets 14 and 14' are subjected, prior to their gluing to the intermediate layer 12, to traditional stretch- forming operations achieved for example by passing the extensible paper sheet between pairs of rollers having in their lateral surface mutually penetrating cavities and complementary reliefs, or by other traditional methods comprising deformation by punches, by compressed air, by mixed techniques, etc.

The multilayer papery material of the invention can be advantageously used in the packaging sector for wrapping articles of any type and shape, to assume in this case a shape more or less approximately corresponding to that of the article itself.

The multilayer papery material can also be used to form containers having an actual shape, made stable by the rigidity of the material to bending. This rigidity can also be positively used during the making of the container and during the use of the container when filling. During these stages, which are generally effected by machine, the multilayer cardboard sheet, possibly punched, folded and glued to form a flattened container, is withdrawn by a traditional automatic packaging machine which, to open it, to position it correctly in front of the filling station and then to close it, subjects it to a series of stresses of extremely variable type and extent, such that by being made from a substantially indeformable

material able to react to every type of stress, the packaging machine is able to operate thereon under more driven conditions in terms of rate, reliability and type of stresses.

If however the containers formed from the multilayer papery material of the invention are not to be folded flat while awaiting make-up, to be then opened up, but are already shaped in their final form for use, the invention enables suitable stacking shapes to be studied, and which because of the container indeformability allow easier stacking and likewise easy destacking.

Finally according to the invention, the entire multilayer can be deformed instead of the individual layers, by utilizing the extensibility characteristics of its constituent layers. This can be achieved by subjecting the multilayer web to stretching after its formation, but before the container is made, or the already made container.

Figures 4a and 4b show two steps in the method for forming a parallelepiped container obtained from a multilayer papery material according to the invention. In particular, Figure 4a shows upperly a sheet of multilayer material 20 punched and crease-lined, and lowerly a flat mould on which the sheet is deformed by stretch-forming by traditional techniques before being folded and glued to form the parallelepiped container 24 shown in Figure 4b, and with its lateral walls comprising ornamental relief motifs.

Figures 5a and 5b show two steps of a different method for forming a parallelepiped container having on two opposing vertical walls a different ornamental motif 30. The method comprises firstly forming the parallelepiped container 28 by traditional punching, crease lining, folding and gluing techniques, and then inserting it into the equal-dimensioned parallelepiped cavity of a mould 32, in which the two walls corresponding to the walls of the container 28 to be

decorated comprise a depression 34 corresponding to the relief motif 30. Compressed air is then fed into the container 28 inserted in the mould 32, to thrust the wall portions into the mould depressions, to create the ornamental relief motif by stretch-forming. By varying the shape and position of the depressions 34 provided in the mould 32, the shape and arrangement of the obtained reliefs 30 on the container vary, Figures 6 and 7 showing two parallelepiped containers 28 comprising different structural motifs on its lateral walls, to provide a substantially increased rigidity with a smaller quantity of papery material. The container also has the advantage of a greater containment volume for equal material used, and provides a shock absorption function.