The present invention relates to a container for packaging granular products, such as sweets, pills, tablets and the like.

In particular, the invention relates to a container of the type comprising a containing body for the abovementioned products having a wall provided with a dispensing opening, with which a pouring spout is associated, said spout comprising a closing wall hinged on one side of said opening and a pair of side walls which, together with the closing wall, define a guide channel ending in a mouth for pouring the products and where the spout is rotatably movable between a retracted position inside the containing body, where the spout closes the dispensing opening, and an extracted position which allows dispensing of the products through the mouth of the guide channel.

A paperboard container of the abovementioned type is described, for example, in FR 2,695,625 and FR 2,714,658.

The problem associated with containers which have a pouring spout of the abovementioned type is that the spout does not allow adjustment of the area of the outlet mouth for the products; the angle of rotation of the spout closing wall generally ranges between 0° and 90° and in some cases may be up to 180°; however, intermediate fixed positions are not envisaged and/or not permitted, so that the pouring of the granular products by the user often results in an unwanted number of said products coming out of the container.

In order to overcome this drawback, the present invention provides a container which has the characteristic features defined in the claims which follow.

In particular, the invention provides a container of the type mentioned in the introduction, which is characterized in that it comprises a flap hinged with the containing body in a position facing the pouring spout, said flap co-operating with the side walls of the guide channel in such a way that the rotation of the pouring spout from the retracted position into the extracted position causes rotation of the flap into a position defining with the spout a dispensing mouth having a restricted area with respect to the area of the dispensing opening.

Further characteristic features and advantages of the container according to the invention will become clear from the detailed description which follows, provided purely by way of a non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a container according to the invention in a configuration during assembly;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the container according to Fig. 1 with the spout in an intermediate position;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the container with the spout in an extracted end position;

Figs. 4 and 5 are side views of the container in the configuration according to Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the flat unfolded form of a shaped piece of paperboard from which a container according to the invention and in particular a container according to Figs. 1-5 can be obtained; and

Fig. 7 shows a plan view of a side wall of the spout.

The description which follows is provided with reference to a paperboard container, which has a general parallelepiped shape; it is understood, however, that the constructional principles on which the invention is based, in particular as regards the characteristic features of the pouring spout, are applicable in general to any container with an alternative shape, for example a prismatic or cylindrical shape, as well as to containers made of materials other than paperboard, such as plastic materials and composite or laminated sheet material.

Similarly, the flat unfolded form shown in Fig. 6 is to be understood as being purely illustrative since the person skilled in the art may easily understand that a container which has structural and functional characteristics similar to those shown may be obtained by means of alternative unfolded forms.

In Fig. 6 the continuous lines are cutting lines, i.e. lines along which a cut is performed by means of shearing or punching; the broken lines are folding or creasing lines and the dot- dash lines are pre -weakened lines, such as lines along which partial shearing has been performed.

In the parallelepiped configuration shown, the container comprises four main walls 2, 4, 6 and 8 which form the side walls separated by means of creasing lines 10, 12, 14 and 16; a flap 18, connected to the wall 8 by means of the creasing line 16, is used to connect together (by means of gluing) the walls 2 and 8. The flaps 20, 22, 24 and 26, which are connected to the respective side walls by means of creasing lines 28, 30, 32 and 34, are intended to be folded along said creasing lines towards the inside of the container and to be glued together so as to form the base of the container.

38 denotes overall a pouring spout, which in the example is associated with a top wall 40 of the container; it is understood, however, that the pouring spout may be associated with any of the walls of the container, for example with the side wall 8.

The pouring spout 38 comprises a closing wall 42 which is hinged with the wall 40 by means of a creasing line 44. The wall 40 is fixed, being connected for example by means of gluing to the flap 76, and the closing wall 42 is movable rotatably along said creasing line 44. The creasing line 44 therefore delimits an opening 50 which extends between said creasing line and the side 52 of the wall 8; said opening 50 is only partly visible in Fig. 2, being partially obstructed by the flap 54, the function of which will be described in greater detail below.

The pouring spout 38 comprises a pair of side walls 46 and 48 which, together with the closing wall 42, define a guide channel for pouring of the products contained in the container.

The pouring spout 38 is therefore rotatably movable about the creasing line 44, which acts as a hinge, between a position totally retracted inside the body of the container and an extracted position which allows dispensing of the products through the mouth of the guide channel. In the retracted position, the closing wall 42 closes the opening 50 and the side walls 46 and 48 of the spout 38 are totally inside the body of the container, being arranged parallel to the larger side walls 2 and 6 of the container.

The angle of rotation α of the closing wall 42 may be between 0° and 180°; however, it is preferable to envisage a maximum angle of rotation of up to 90° and more preferably between about 70° and 85°; means able to limit the angle of rotation are described below.

The flap 54, which is hinged with the wall 8 along the creasing line 52, has the function of limiting the aperture of the discharge mouth of the guide channel, so as to prevent pouring of too many unwanted granular products contained inside the container.

For this purpose, the flap 54 co-operates with the side walls 46 and 48 of the spout in such a way that the rotation of the pouring spout from the retracted position into the extracted position causes rotation of the flap 54 into an end position defining with the closing wall 42 and the walls 46 and 48 of the spout a dispensing aperture 57 (Fig. 3) having a restricted area with respect to the area of the opening 50.

In the preferred embodiment, the flap 54 has an end part 54a which has a transverse dimension di which is smaller than the transverse dimension d of the widened part 54b adjacent to the creasing line 52, where the abovementioned parts 54a and 54b are connected by connecting sections 56 with a straight or arched profile.

The side walls 46 and 48 of the guide channel have a side, 58 and 60, respectively, which is directed towards the end of the guide channel with an arched profile or preferably with a profile comprising two end sections 60a, 60b and straight sections 58a, 58b, respectively, (Fig. 7) connected by an arched section 60c and 58c, respectively.

The profiles 58 and 60 of the side walls co-operate with the connecting sections 56 of the flap 54 so as to cause rotation and raising of the flap 54. In particular, in the closed position of the spout 38, the flap 54 extends towards the inside of the opening 50, in a position substantially parallel to the wall 40, with the connecting sections 56 in contact with the profiles 58 and 60 of the side walls 48 and 46.

The profiles 58 and 60 are shaped in such a way that the rotation of the spout 38 from the initial retracted position into the extracted end position causes, by means of interference of said profiles with the flap, raising of the flap into the angled position, as far as the end position where the flap defines with the closing wall 42 the aforementioned dispensing aperture 57.

Preferably the profile 58 and/or 60 of the side walls of the spout is also shaped in such a way that it is capable of interfering with the wall 4 when the angle of rotation α reaches a predetermined threshold value, preferably less than 90° so as to limit the rotational travel of the spout.

In the paperboard embodiment, represented by the flat unfolded form in Figure 6, the closing wall 42 of the pouring spout 38 forms part of a flap adjacent to the wall 2 of the container; the flap part forming the closing wall 42 is separated from the side wall 2 of the container along the cutting line 62 and is connected to the flap part forming the wall 40 by means of the creasing line 44. The wall 40 is in turn connected to the side wall 2 along the creasing line 74.

The side wall 46 of the spout is integral with the closing wall 42, being connected to it along the creasing line 64.

The other side wall 48 of the spout is instead not integral with the closing wall 42, but is connected to an auxiliary flap 68 by means of the creasing line 70.

The side wall 48 of the spout is preferably connected to the flap 18 along a section 58d of its profile 58 which, preferably, is a pre-weakened section which has pre-cut segments connected together at one or more points or sections. The section 58d may however be a pre-cut section. The section 94, which extends between the creasing lines 52 and 70, is preferably a pre-weakened section, breakage of which, as will be seen below, is performed by the user upon opening the container and extracting the spout. The unfolded form shown in Fig. 6 also comprises an auxiliary closing flap 80 which is connected to the side wall 6 of the container by means of the creasing line 82. This auxiliary flap 80 is formed by two wall parts, 84 and 86, which are separated by a creasing line or preferably by a pre -weakened line 88 which, preferably, has undergone partial shearing. The wall part 86, in the pre-cut unfolded form, is connected to the side wall 6 along a pre -weakened line 90.

The abovementioned flap 80 is defined as being an auxiliary closing flap, since in the assembled container it forms a closing wall which, in the closed configuration of the container, is arranged overlapping and connected to the wall 40 by means of gluing of the wall part 84 to the wall 40.

This flap 80 is shown in Figure 1 in its position before being folded over in the direction of the arrow Fl so as to be thus superimposed and fixed to the wall 40; for greater clarity, this flap 80 is not shown instead in Figures 2-5.

Starting with the pre-cut unfolded form shown in Fig. 6, the container is assembled by connecting the side flap 18 to the inner face of the wall 2 and the flap 68 to the face of the closing wall 42 situated inside the container. This operation is performed, avoiding breakage of the pre-weakened section 94 and, preferably, also of the pre-weakened section 58d which connects the side wall 48 of the spout to the flap 18.

The side wall 46 of the spout is folded at right angles to the closing wall 42 along the creasing line 64; the wall 40 is folded at right angles to the wall 2 along the creasing line 74, introducing the side wall 46 of the spout inside the container. The wall 40 is then fixed to a flap 76 which in turn has been folded at right angles to the side wall 4 along the creasing line 78 which connects it thereto.

The flap 54 is folded towards the inside of the container along the creasing line 52. The auxiliary closing flap 80 is then folded at right angles to the side wall 6 along the creasing line 82 and the wall part 84 is fixed, by means of gluing, so as to overlap the wall 40. The side walls of the spout 46 and 48 have, preferably, engaging means which, in the closed configuration of the container, co-operate with the flap 54 so as to keep the spout in the retracted configuration. These engaging means are, for example, a respective shoulder 98 and 96 (Figs. 6 and 7) adjacent to the creasing lines 64 and 70, respectively, which connect these side walls to the closing wall 42 and to the auxiliary flap 68, respectively.

In the assembled and closed configuration of the container, the flap 54 extends parallel to the closing wall 42, and the abovementioned shoulders 96 and 98 of the side walls of the spout are positioned below the widened part 54b of the flap 54 and define together with the closing wall of the spout a recess 100 (Fig. 5) inside which the widened part 54b of the flap engages.

In this configuration, the flap 54 also acts as retaining element for preventing rotation of the spout into the extracted position.

In order to open the container, the user raises the end edge 42a of the closing wall 42, causing breakage of the pre-weakened line 90 and the pre-weakened section 94. The same operation causes breakage of the pre-weakened line 58d should the latter not have been previously separated from the flap 18.

The pre-weakened line 90 and the pre-weakened section 94 thus act as means for retaining the spout in the closed configuration retracted inside the container and as anti-tamper means since the force which the user must exert on the wall 42 in order to cause breakage thereof is also an indicator of the fact that the container is integral and has not been tampered with.

The closing wall 42 of the pouring spout may then be raised in order to bring the spout into the extracted position and allow pouring of the granular products contained in the container. Rotation of the spout into the extracted position may if necessary also result in breakage of the pre-weakened line 88.

Owing to the abovementioned characteristic features, the container according to the invention is able to prevent the unwanted dispensing of too large a number of the granular products contained therein.

Obviously, the embodiments and the constructional details may be significantly modified with respect to that described and illustrated by way of example.

Thus, not necessarily, the flap 54 must be hinged along a creasing line which forms one side of a side wall of the container, but could be hinged along a creasing line in an intermediate position of a wall of the container.

Similarly, the dispensing spout may be positioned in an intermediate position of the wall with which it is associated.

The container is used in particular for packaging confectionary products, which the consumer prefers to extract one or two at a time from the container; thus, the size of the aperture of the dispensing mouth 57 is determined depending on the size of the products contained in the container.

With reference to Fig. 3, which shows the spout in the extracted end position, the minimum size d ₂ of the aperture of the dispensing mouth 57 may be greater than the minimum dimension of the granular products contained in the container, but smaller than their maximum dimension, such that the granular products are able to be discharged through the abovementioned aperture of the dispensing mouth 57 only when correctly oriented.

However, in the preferred embodiment, in the extracted configuration of the spout (Fig. 3), the flap 54 defines, together with the spout, a pouring mouth, the dimensions of which are such as to prevent dispensing of the products.

In this embodiment, however, dispensing of the products (one by one) may be obtained by manually shaking the container such as to cause, as a result of the pressing force exerted by the products on the inner face of the flap 54, tilting of the flap 54 about the hinging line 52 so as to increase the angle αi which this flap 54 forms with respect to the wall 40, so as to increase the minimum size d ₂ of the aperture of the dispensing mouth. Typically, the container has dimensions such that it may be easily kept inside a pocket or in a handbag; it is understood, however, that the constructional principle is applicable also to larger-size containers and in general to containers of any size.

The container, finally, may be packaged inside a wrapper formed by - preferably transparent - sheet material which adheres to the container body.

The scope of the invention also includes a single piece pre-cut unfolded form, such as that shown in Fig. 6, from which the container according to the invention may be obtained.